Gurjjars pledge vote to the BSP in South Delhi

Covering the Bahujan Samaj Party for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections is not an easy task. The party has a centralized power structure where Mayawati controls all communication. Talk to any party worker and you would hit the wall. But it has been fun nonetheless.
After days of making phone calls and getting kicked out of the BSP office (We were asked to call a number where the guy is never available and they wouldn't even let us peep inside through the cracks to look at the building), on Saturday, although it took me a bumpy auto ride to Kabir Nagar, I met some of the party workers. On Sunday, it was the Gurjjar Mahapanchayat and it was fun being the only woman there. This is the original version of the story that was filed for the Indian Express and was published March 30. The edited version did away with most of the color and descriptions I had spent hours gathering. But Behenji truly is a phenomenon.


Chinki Sinha
New Delhi, March 29, 2009

One by one, the Gurjjar village pradhans walked on to the dais Sunday
morning at the Gurjjar Mahapanchayat at the BSP’s Chattarpur office and
exhorted their community to support the Bahujan Samaj Party candidate
from South Delhi Kanwar Singh Tanwar, who is contesting the Lok Sabha
elections.
If Tanwar fails, it would be an insult to the biradari
elders, they said.
Representatives of at least 36 villages that fall under the South
Delhi constituency and are located on the outskirts of the city
attended the event that is also the party’s first such meeting before
the Lok Sabha elections. Many more such panchayats would be organized
as the election date nears. The area has about 70 villages in its
fold, party members said.
Delhi goes to polls on May 7.
While the BJP too has pitched Ramesh Bidhuri, another Gurjjar, from
South Delhi seat, Tanwar, 49, who also contested the Chattarpur Vidhan
Sabha seat in the Assembly elections last year and lost, is confident
that the social engineering done by the party high command that has
made inroads into the communities by holding bhaichara samiti meetings
throughout will ensure the seat is his.
Each pradhan who had come to the sprawling lawns in the Fatehpur Beri, where Tanwar lives, said it was a matter of pride that behenji
had given the ticket to a Gurjjar from Chattarpur and all members of
the family and community should cast their ballot in his favor or else
it will be against the authority of the sarpanch who is also the word
of God for his community.
“Pancho ke faisle ko Parmeshwar bhi nahi badal sakta. The BJP has
betrayed us in Rajasthan where 70 of our people died. The Congress
government let it go. Now it is time to decide and we are with
Tanwar,” a pradhan said on the stage.
The community would vote en masse, the pradhans said.
Delhi has about 10 percent Gurjjars and leaders are upset that the
congress has never given tickets to any community member except for
Rajesh Pilot.
“They have made promises but have gone back on those,” Tanwar said.
While the panchayat was primarily Gurjjar, community leaders from the
Jatavs and Muslims too were present. Recently, Parvesh Sharma, a Jat
candidate was denied ticket by the BJP which led to huge protests. For
the BSP, it is an opportunity that shouldn’t be missed, party members
said.
Jatav community elder Raj Kumar said he had 25,000 Jatav votes behind him.
“He is a good candidate,” he said. “He has been doing charity and we
want a good leader.”
Another influential community worker, Riyasat Ali, who said he was
denied a ticket by the BJP years ago when he worked for the party in
Mehrauli, joined the BSP a couple of years ago. In Mehrauli alone,
there are more than 7,000 Muslims and they would vote en masse for
Tanwar, he said.
“This party is about Sarva Samaj. We support Tanwar,” Ali said.
The Gujjar vote could be critical in the upcoming elections as there
are more than two lakh Gurjjars in the constituency and dominant among
those are the Lohiyas (two villages), Ambavatas (one village), and
Tanwars (8 villages) gotras are throwing their weight behind Tanwar,
who was also the richest candidate worth more than Rs. 150 crores to
file the nomination papers in the Vidhan Sabha elections.
“The BJP’s stronghold is in only two villages,” Tanwar said.
Tanwar’s name was announced within the party cadres as early as last
December and preparations have been on in full swing since then.
Bhaichara committies have been mobilizing castes groups in order to
make woo those that are outside the party’s core base vote bank.
Tanwar was a Congress supporter for many years before he joined BSP
around two-and-a-half years ago. A businessman, who is into real
estate, he owns fancy cars too.
For years now, Tanwar has been distributing free water in Chattarpur
area where water shortage has been an issue for decades. He also gives
pension of Rs. 500 to around 2,000 poor widows in the area besides
running a mobile dispensary in far flung villages. All this is under
the Narayani Devi Charitable Trust run by him.
The mobile dispensary, which the proud party workers emphasize is
air-conditioned, was parked on one side of the ground, evidently on
display for those who came.
The fight will be tough in Chhattarpur that has traditionally voted
for the Congress. Tanwar being a Gurjjar can add a third dimension to
the BSP's traditional vote bank of Dalit and Muslim voters who
together with the Gurjjars make up for a large chunk of the voters.
There are around 3 lakh Scheduled Caste and Dalit population in
addition to 75,000 baniyas, 90,000 Muslims and two lakh Gurjjars in the
area. Other Assembly constituency seats like Ambedkar Nagar and Deoli
are dominated by the Jatavs. That could affect the election results this time, party members
said.
However, with all the talk on development in the villages including
laying sewage lines and doing away with Section 81 that is responsible
for demolition of houses on farms outside the village borders, the
party is tight-lipped about reservations for the Gurjjar community.
Mayawati has promised an increase in the overall quota for STs to
include both Gurjjars and Meenas. But that means a dent in the share of
the scheduled castes as the reservation is capped at 22.5 percent.
“We are not giving any commitments. Behenji has said she will give
reservation to upper castes but we will see,” Tanwar said. “We want
development in the villages.”
But a few Gujjars that had come to the panchayat have hopes running high.
Prakash Lohiya, who is a community elder from Ghittorni, said he was
hopeful that Behenji will give reservation in government jobs to
Gurjjars.
“They follow the Sarva Samaj model. Right now, they are not in power.
If they get to power with our support, they will do it,” he said.
For the Gurjjars, an alliance with Brahmins and other communities that
the BSP has lately been wooing will help in broadening their
negotiating powers.
The party is also highlighting the fact that a Gurjjar who lives in the
area and understands the local issues well has been given a ticket by
the BSP.
As one pradhan put it “We are indebted to Behenji for giving a local,
Tanwar, a ticket. Now let’s push him to victory. Don’t betray the
community as the elders have decided.”
Meanwhile, the crowd of approximately 6,000 nodded and clapped.