Ajit Singh is the son of ex-prime minister Charan Singh, one of the country's tallest Jat leaders. (File)
Eight seats in western Uttar Pradesh will vote on April 11, the opening day of the seven-phase national election. As nominations close today, Muzaffarnagar is emerging as the big ticket contest in the region.
In the Muzaffarnagar seat, its current MP Sanjeev Baliyan of the BJP will take on Ajit Singh, the chief of the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) and a former union minister. Ajit Singh is the son of former prime minister Charan Singh, one of the country's tallest Jat leaders. He is the candidate of the UP gathbandhan, or the Samajwadi Party-Bahujan Samaj Party-RLD alliance.
The Congress has not fielded any candidate in Muzaffarnagar; it is one of the seven seats the Congress has left for the alliance that flashed it a "no entry" sign.
The Congress said it had decided not to put up candidates against top leaders of the opposition alliance to reciprocate Mayawati and Akhilesh Yadav's move to spare Amethi and Raebareli - the constituencies of its top leaders Rahul Gandhi and his mother Sonia Gandhi.
In August-September 2013, just months before the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, riots in Muzaffarnagar left over 60 dead and thousands displaced. The riots created a big divide between the Muslim and Jat communities that had lived in harmony for decades. Both communities have a significant presence in Muzaffarnagar and across western UP. In the extremely polarised run-up to the previous election, Sanjeev Baliyan, 46, won with a record margin of over four lakh votes and over 50 percent of the vote share. It was the BJP's first victory there in 15 years.
Sanjeev Baliyan was rewarded with a ministry in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government. Police cases filed by the Akhilesh Yadav government, then in power in Uttar Pradesh, named Mr Baliyan, BJP lawmaker Umesh Malik and Suresh Rana, a minister in the Yogi Adityanath government, as accused. The lawmakers were accused of violating prohibitory orders and stopping public servants from doing their duties.
Sanjeev Baliyan of the BJP will take on Ajit Singh, the chief of the Rashtriya Lok Dal in the Muzaffarnagar seat. (File photo)
In 2018, Mr Baliyan led a move to get the Yogi Adityanath government to drop what they said were "riot cases against innocent citizens" filed by the previous administration.
"If cases are withdrawn, first it will be against the hundreds of ordinary and innocent people framed by the police in 2013, this I can assure you," Mr Baliyan had told the media.
For Ajit Singh, fighting from the Muzaffarnagar seat is a bit of a gamble. Mr Singh has had multiple terms as a member of parliament but all of them have been from Baghpat, another seat in western UP voting in phase 1. This time, Ajit Singh's son Jayant Chaudhary is contesting from Baghpat. Ajit Singh has shifted to Muzaffarnagar.
Both Mr Baliyan and Ajit Singh are jats, a community that has a strong presence not only in Muzaffarnagar but across western UP. Muslims also are a significant presence in many western UP seats. In Muzaffarnagar, Muslims form a big chunk of the voters, followed by the Jatavs and Jats. The seat also has many OBC (Other Backward Class) voters and also non-jatav Scheduled Caste voters.
In the last few days, Mr Baliyan has pitched himself as a local who is available to his electorate seven days a week and Ajit Singh as an outsider.