At the designated place for protests in Lakhimpur Kheri which the locals call ‘Bilobhi Gate’, three youths are waiting for their order of noodles. While Rahul Singh (28), a bank employee, says it is time for change as “this government knows only how to invoke emotions in the name of religion and caste”, friends Vaibhav Gupta (27) and Pushpendra Verma (28) are not sure whom to vote for.
One thing they agree on: that the killing of farmers in Tikunia in Lakhimpur Kheri, in which the son of Union MoS Ajay Mishra’s son is an accused, was “never our issue”. Says Verma: “Most of those who were killed were outsiders. It was a big event for the media, but it didn’t affect us, and neither will it affect the voting pattern here.”
‘Bilobhi’ is a distortion of the name of British officer and Deputy Commissioner of Kheri Robert William Douglas Willoughby, who was killed by freedom fighters. If the 1920s event is now a forgotten memory, it’s not just the three friends who believe that the farmer deaths are also in the past.
Last week, the main accused, Ashish Mishra, came out on bail,
Vaibhav Verma (28), a farmer visiting the city from his village around 20 km away to buy some equipment, says his vote is for the BJP despite issues. “They are building a nation. Can’t we make a few sacrifices for them?” says Verma, a Kurmi.
The Tikunia deaths was “about Sikhs and those who protested against the farm laws”, he adds. “When the farmers in this area didn’t take part in the agitation, why should we be bothered by what happened during the protest in Tikunia? It seemed like a conspiracy anyway.”
However, even if father and son Mishra remain popular in the area despite the incident, the Samajwadi Party has been gaining ground. BJP leaders also admit in hushed tones that the party will not repeat its 2017 success of winning all the eight seats in the district.
In Jagsar village, with mostly Kurmis and Dalits, a row has broken out at a Kurmi house atop which are flags of both the SP and BJP. Finally, an elder, Deshbandu Gautam, who is a Dalit, intervenes to get the SP flag removed. Everyone is fighting over the two parties and seems to have forgotten the “experienced” BSP chief Mayawati, he rues. “My vote is for Behenji, no matter how many times I hear that it is a two-sided fight.”
Gautam is among the few who remembers the Tikunia incident with a shudder — “It was brutal, I am also a farmer, and it could have been me” — but that won’t be a factor on how he votes on February 23. “ I would have anyway voted for the BSP like I have been doing every time. My vote doesn’t count for any other party, so what is the point?”
For those like Sirajuddin (28), who works at a motorcycle repair shop in the market, the choice is simple. Complaining of no work for days, the new father says his only choice is the cycle (the SP symbol). “Why should I vote for the BJP when I know how they govern?”
The farmers’ killing is a faint memory even at the site of the incident, Tikunia, around 100 km from Jagsar. At Banveerpur, Mishra’s home village nearby, there is vocal support for “Monu bhaiyya (Ashish)” and that same hint at a conspiracy. Minister of State Ajay Mishra insists his son was framed.
One fallout is that Ashish, once the frontrunner for a ticket from the Nighasan Assembly seat, has had to sit this one out. The BJP has fielded sitting MLA Shashank Verma, whose father, the late Patel Ramkumar Verma, previously represented the seat.
The SP and BSP’s candidates are both leaders who were once in the other party — RS Kushwaha, the former BSP state chief, is now in the SP; while RA Usmani was a minister in the SP government and is now in the BSP.
Even the Sikhs in Banveerpur are mum about Mishra. Settled here after Partition, Sikhs make up substantial numbers in Lakhimpur Kheri. Their numbers range 20,000 to 40,000 in seats.
Driving a tactor on his farm, Upkar Singh (40) says, “My children go to a school owned by Teni ji (Mishra) and we have no issue with him. The Tikunia issue was never our issue. Our issues are floods, pending payments for sugarcane and diesel, petrol prices. The biggest issue is stray cattle.” Upkar has a daughter (12) and a son (8).
However, Pradeep Mishra (42) believes the Sikhs may not be vocal as they are “scared of Teni Maharaj”. “Every Sikh house in the village sent at least one person for the farmer agitation. Now, they say good things about Teniji. You must understand that they have to live here,” says Mishra, who runs an electronics shop in the village.
Harjeet Singh (40), a Sikh lawyer who grew up in Banveerpur and is associated with the SP, says Sikhs of the village will “definitely” vote against the BJP. “They have not forgotten the incident that happened in their backyard (village). They are also angry that Ashish got bail so soon.”
He adds, “Also, Sikhs may not be a deciding factor in any seat, but don’t forget that we employ hundreds on our farm who are like our family. Their voting pattern is influenced by us.”
In Sikh “jhaalas” or neighborhoods further away, like in Nighasan and Palia, the anger is more palpable.
Outside the Nanak Shahi Gurdwara in Palia, affluent farmers Satnam Singh (43) and his nephew Rajvir Singh (27) say they will never forget the incident. “When we heard that a minister’s son drove over our brothers, we couldn’t believe it… Apart from the four dead, at least 30 were badly injured, and never even went to hospitals due to fear (of police action),,” says Satnam, who owns 10 acres of land.
Rajveer says he tells everyone he knows “that the BJP is not good for this country”. “Farmers had to protest for months… 700 had to die… for the BJP to withdraw the farm laws. And they did it just before the elections… In 2017, we had voted for the BJP, but we won’t repeat the mistake.”
In Pilibhit district next to Lakhimpur Kheri, where Sikhs are in larger numbers, all the four seats were won by the BJP in 2017. Here the unhappiness with the BJP goes beyond the Tikunia incident to unemployment, inflation, farm distress, stray cattle and loss of business.
At the Station Road Market, Ajit Singh Bindra (47), sitting at the Punjab Gunhouse Shop, which his grandfather started in 1964, says, “I have been here since morning. It is 2 pm and I have had no customers.”
In Puranpur, a Sikh-dominated area, Ayurvedic doctor Harpreet Singh (48) says the BJP has failed “on all fronts”. “My son wanted to join the Army. For the last four years, no new recruitments have happened and now he has passed the age. Earlier, new Army recruitments happened every year.”
On Ashish’s bail, Harpeet says: “He got out on the same day polling was finished in western UP, where the anger over the farm laws was highest. They have made the lives of farmers a joke.”
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