#BSP-bashing Jat leader joins hands with Maya

LUCKNOW: A crusader against the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) is all set to become Mayawati’s key man. Western UP Jat leader Satpal Chaudhary, who played a crucial role in farmers’ agitation in Bhatta Parsaul against previous Mayawati regime in UP, is taking a U-turn to join the BSP. A formal announcement of his joining hands with Mayawati and being made party candidate from Muradnagar in 2017 assembly elections is likely to be made on May 30.

The development may give Maya a fair chance to resurrect her party in the Jat heartland of UP before the state goes to polls in two years time.

Interestingly, Chaudhary was prominently active during the Jat agitation in Muradnagar, Kafurpur as also during violent protests on NH-24 in September 2009 at Ghaziabad. During the agitation at Muradnagar, Jat leaders had disrupted water supplies from the Muradnagar canal to Delhi and had also laid siege on railway tracks at Kafurpur railway station in Amroha district, which led to disruptions of railway traffic.

Later, Satpal was arrested during BSP regime in 2011 for giving shelter to Manvir Teotia, an accused of inciting violence in Bhatta Parsaul, the epicentre of a raging protest against land acquisition drive of the then Mayawati government.

Nearly four years on, things have taken a turn by 180 degrees. Chaudhary recently met BSP chief Mayawati and expressed his desire to join the party. “Behenji (Maya) was the first to come in support of Jat reservation,” Chaudhary, also general secretary of All India Jat Arakshan Sangharsh Samiti (AIJASS), told TOI.

AIJSS happens to be a powerful body of Jats which has representatives from UP, Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Rajasthan, Jammu, Himanchal Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. The body had taken over the railway tracks in UP, Haryana and Punjab paralyzing railway services in March 2011 in support of their demand to include Jats in Central government’s list of other backward class category.

Asked about his change of mind and support for the BSP, Chaudhary said his protest against previous BSP government was for the farmers. “That is a thing of the past. Mayawati ji has since been supporting the cause of Jats in the region,” he said.

His decision to join the BSP, however, has caused turmoil in the AIJSS. National president of the samiti Yashpal Malik said Chaudhary will have to leave the association if he joins any political party. “The association gets help from various political parties. But a political man cannot hold a post,” said Malik.

A known party hopper, Chaudhary had joined Peace Party in 2012. He later switched loyalty to Aam Admi Party (AAP) with an aim to contest Lok Sabha elections in 2014. He was, however, denied a ticket by Arvind Kejriwal.