Three reasons to watch out for Chandrashekhar Azad in 2019 Lok Sabha elections
He has been at the centre of the political stage since he and his organisation Bhim Army protested against the upper caste Thakurs in Shabbirpur village of the Saharanpur district in Uttar Pradesh on Maharana Pratap Jayanti, in 2017. Chandrashekhar Azad was first noticed in a big way in 2016 for standing up to local Rajputs in Saharanpur.
The Thakurs reportedly didn’t allow the Dalits in the village to celebrate Ravidas Jayanti. The war of words between the Thakurs and Dalits started, and resulted in violence allegedly unleashed by the Thakurs against the Dalits.
Azad was released from jail only in September 2018 by then several significant leaders had joined the chorus for his release.
The Allahabad High Court granted him bail on November 2, 2017. However, police booked him under the stringent National Security Act (NSA) days before his release.
Now a free man, Azad has made the 2019 Lok Sabha election even more interesting by announcing that he would contest against Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Varanasi.
Azad versus Modi
Earlier this month, Azad had a high-profile visitor at a Meerut hospital where he was admitted after being detained by the police for allegedly violating the model code of conduct.
The visitor was Congress general secretary in-charge for east UP, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. Soon after the meeting the Bhim Army declared that it would contest the Lok Sabha polls and Azad would take on Prime Minister Modi in Varanasi.
Varanasi is a BJP stronghold and considering Modi himself is contesting from the seat, Azad has little chances of winning - but it would be interesting to see just how much damage he can cause to the BJP vote bank in the constituency.
Azad — who once added 'Ravan' to his name — dropped it as he began to learn the tightrope-walk of politics.
Challenger to Mayawati
He is 30, she is 62.
There is a reason why Dalit icon and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati herself had never spoken out for Azad’s release from jail. At a time when the BSP is fighting for political relevance in the state, having drawn a blank in the 2014 national elections and won just 19 out of the 403 Assembly seats in 2017, Azad has acquired nothing less than a cult status in Uttar Pradesh’s Dalit community.
Akhilesh Yadav lost the election as chief minister in 2017. Mayawati and Akhilesh Yadav’s separate defeats forced them to end their lengthy feud and come together against the BJP. In three crucial by-elections that followed, they defeated the BJP — and suddenly, Mayawati was back in the game as the must-have player for both the Opposition and the ruling party.
Abandoning her practice of appearing in public only during election rallies, the BSP chief made a rare trip to Saharanpur to meet the Dalit victims of the caste violence in 2017. Dalits had abandoned their traditional leaders to vote for Modi.
This suggested that the Dalit community was looking for change. Azad could well emerge as the leader who provides that change.
Mayawati has called Azad a BJP stooge, but the young leader’s name has reached almost every Dalit village in Uttar Pradesh.
Growing closeness with the Congress
When Azad tried to reach out to Mayawati by calling her ‘bua’ he was snubbed by the BSP chief who said she can "never have a relation with these sort of people".
It is significant that not only has Priyanka Gandhi visited the Dalit leader in hospital, but Congress president Rahul Gandhi too has praised him.
While Priyanka insisted that no political connotation should be linked to her hospital visit, she openly supported Azad saying, “Yeh ahankaari sarkaar hai. The government wants to suppress the voice of the youth.”
Meerut: Congress General Secretary for UP (East) Priyanka Gandhi Vadra meets Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar who is undergoing treatment at a hospital. pic.twitter.com/e4QPUJolzW
— ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) March 13, 2019
Given how the Congress is eyeing the 2022 Assembly elections in the state to once again establish its roots UP, the party’s reaching out to Azad is significant — and a sure indication that the grand old party could try to reclaim UP from its opponents by tying up with Azad — who is only deepening his roots in the state..
Azad's rise is an intriguing story in itself and he will be closely watched by political experts, both in 2019 — and beyond..