Next Gen Bahujan

Nagina Lok Sabha constituency in Bijnor district has emerged as a key battleground for the future of Dalit politics in Uttar Pradesh

A pocket-sized photograph of BR Ambedkar (Babasaheb) hangs on a makeshift tarpaulin "wall" of a tea stall that Laxmi, 33, and her husband, Rajan Kumar, 37, run in Najibabad town of Bijnor district in Uttar Pradesh (UP). Laxmi, who complains of not having a ration card, has been following the goings-on at a hotel named 'Najeeb Darbar' across the street where renegade leader Chandrashekhar Azad Ravan's Aazad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram) has set up a temporary office.

The four-year-old party was to contest its first Lok Sabha elections from Nagina constituency on April 19. "This time we have two contenders fighting for the legacy of Babasaheb," Kumar says with a laugh, a week ahead of the polls. While Azad is one, the other is Akash Anand, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati's lesser-known uttaradhikari (successor). Pointing at her own steeping kettle as she brews a fresh batch of tea, Laxmi says, "The ketlee (kettle, Azad's party symbol) seems to be ahead of the haathi (elephant, BSP's party symbol)." Hurtling between rallies, Azad said that choosing Nagina was not a strategic move.

"We are contesting elections on a minuscule budget. I wanted to contest the elections from any constituency. The party decided to field me from Nagina and I accepted," says Azad. The political eminence of Nagina, however, may not be lost on him.

Carved out of Bijnor Lok Sabha constituency in 2009, Nagina is significant in many ways-it is a reserved seat with a majority Muslim population followed by Dalits. The constituency has become a prestige battle for Mayawati. It was from Bijnor that the fiery leader, from the historically oppressed Chamar or Jatav community, burst into India's electoral politics, winning the 1989 Lok Sabha polls and altering the political landscape of UP, a state with the highest Dalit population (21.1 per cent) in the country. Now, the veteran seems to be relying on her successor-the London-returned MBA and her nephew Anand.