Poll Results Will Be Different This Time In UP's Muzaffarnagar: Farmer Leader

As the first phase of Uttar Pradesh assembly elections got underway, farmer leader Rakesh Tikait on Thursday said "peace has replaced the 2013 situation" in Muzaffarnagar and the poll result will be different this time.

Referring to the communal riots that broke out in Muzaffarnagar district in 2013, the national spokesperson of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) said, "the result of 2013 was a trial, the stadiums of that trial have been demolished here. The stadiums where these matches were played remain demolished now."

"Peace has replaced the previous situation and the results will also not be the same this time,” he told reporters after casting his vote in the district.

Asked what was the “new match” being played, Mr Tikait said, “The new match has already been played and its result will be known soon.” The BJP had swept to power at the Centre in 2014 and in UP after the 2017 assembly elections amid an apparent fall out between the Jat and Muslim communities in the aftermath of the violence in western part of the state.

Mr Tikait, who had earlier cautioned people against communal polling, said election was being completed in a peaceful manner and that in itself is a big accomplishment and the result will be there for everyone to see. On what he thought would be the result of the polls, he said that could be known only on March 10.

“People are voting according to their own system…the issues to be considered should be welfare of farmers and villages,” he added.

Voting was underway in 58 assembly constituencies across 11 districts of western Uttar Pradesh on Thursday amid heavy security deployment.

The BJP had won over 50 of these 58 seats in the 2017 polls.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)