The Subversives – Telling the UP Story Properly https://theaidem.com/en-analysing-the-tectonic-electoral-shift-in-uttar-pradesh/ Revati Laul
June 8, 2024
Those who felt they were hurt the most by Modi and his party’s clarion call to “Ab Ki baar 400 paar – this time, take us to 400,” were the Dalits, especially the Chamars and the Jatavs. If this man comes to power again, he will use a mandate of over 400 seats to change the constitution and we will lose our protection that the constitution affords us, written by our Dalit icon Babasaheb Ambedkar. Many people from the Chamar and Jatav castes had private meetings where they pledged their allegiance to the constitution ahead of the polling day in their area.
Muslims from castes that were oppressed by Muslim landlords, such as Fakirs, Dhobis, Saifis and Ansaris that had voted in part for the BJP in 2019, had consolidated against the party this time and were also articulating their fear in the same way. R, who works with us as our office manager and cook, changed the way she looked at this election from phase one to phase seven. In phase one all she could say is – Modi will win...
the people of UP seemed to be changing their minds about the other politicians seen until now as elite, entitled and far away from them. Rahul Gandhi. During Rahul’s Bharat Jodo Yatra, he walked through this constituency in January 2023 when it was a freezing 4 degrees, in just a half-sleeved white t-shirt and pants. One of the tell-tale comments I picked up from those who had until this time, bought the BJP spin that Rahul was effete and Modi was a real man’s man, was this:
“He’s out and about amongst the people, whereas YOU KNOW WHO, is not. If he’d done this earlier, there’d possibly be no Modi in power.”..
And so it was that a spectrum of diverse reasons built into one overarching conversation, by the time us UP-wallahs were in the final phase of this election. This was an election fought in the shadow of Dr Ambedkar. It was about people wanting to build a polity based on the principles of social justice. Not just as easily said words, but as dissent in practice.