RLD-BJP combine faces to re-test in Uttar Pradesh’s Meerapur, where minority votes play crucial role | Lucknow News

BJP’s alliance with Jayant Chaudhary-led RLD will undergo a comprehensive re-test in the bypoll-bound Meerapur assembly seat where Muslim votes play a crucial role in deciding the electoral fortunes of any political outfit.
According to an estimate, Muslims account for around 33% of the total electorate (around 1 lakh Muslim voters) in the constituency which happens to be the part of Muzaffarnagar district and Bijnor Lok Sabha seat.

Likewise, the constituency has around 70,000 OBCs, primarily Jats, Gurjars and Sainis and around 50,000 Dalits. Upper caste Hindus form only a small chunk of the electorate in the constituency.
Situated around 9 km south west of Muzaffarnagar, Meerapur, according to records, has around 3.22 lakh voters. Of them, around 89% are in rural precincts while only 11% are classified as urban.
The constituency seated in the west UP’s sugar belt has its economy revolving around cane cultivation. The Muzaffarnagar district has at least four prominent sugar mills.
The bypoll in Meerapur has been necessitated following the election of RLD MLA Chandan Chauhan, a Gurjar, to Lok Sabha from Bijnor.
Not surprisingly, the BJP has given the seat to RLD, which had though won the seat as an ally of Samajwadi Party in 2022 assembly elections. Chauhan had then defeated BJP’s Prashant Chaudhary by a margin of more than 27,000 votes while cornering around 50% votes.
Analysts said that RLD’s performance in Meerapur was essentially driven by a steady consolidation of Muslim community which has been a traditional supporter of SP.
This time, the situation has changed with RLD forging an alliance with BJP and fielding backed Mithilesh Pal, an OBC from the seat.
Pal is poised to face a stiff challenge from SP’s Sumbul Rana, the daughter-in-law of former BSP MP Kadir Rana. The BSP, too, has fielded Shah Nazar, a Muslim candidate, to tap into the minority vote bank.
Spicing up the contest is Chandra Shekhar Azad-led Azad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram) which has also fielded Zahid Hussain, a Muslim.
RLD spokesperson Rohit Agarwal said that the party was receiving strong support from all sections of society in the constituency, including Muslims, OBCs and Dalits.
Mithilesh Pal was elected to the UP assembly from the Morna assembly seat on an RLD ticket for the first time in the 2009 bypolls. That was the year when the RLD forged an alliance with the BJP.
She won the seat, which had fallen vacant after the then RLD MLA Kadir Rana switched to the BSP and won the 2009 Lok Sabha elections from Muzaffarnagar seat.
Meerapur came into being after Morna got dissolved following a delimitation exercise. Subsequently, Pal contested from Meerapur in 2012 on an RLD ticket but lost to the BSP candidate Jamil Qasmi by a margin of 12,000 votes. Pal joined the SP in 2017 after the RLD denied her the ticket to contest.
The seat was then won by BJP’s Avtar Singh Bhadana who defeated SP’s Liyakat by a wafer-thin margin of barely 193 votes.
The SP, too, denied Pal a ticket in the 2022 assembly elections, prompting her to quit the party and join the BJP.
The Samajwadi Party, on the other hand, is banking on consolidation of Muslims and OBCs. The party also hopes to get support of Dalit following its alliance with the Congress.