Bypoll a battle between 2 families

Lucknow: More than being a battle between BJP and the joint opposition on the Kairana Lok Sabha by-election, the  polls will see a intense battle between two families that have been at political loggerheads since generations.

The political battle between the Hasan family and the Hukum Singh family will be played out once again in Kairana.

The BJP has fielded Mriganka Singh, daughter of BJP MP Hukum Singh who died earlier this year while the RLD candidate, supported by the opposition, is Tabassum Hasan.

Ms Tabassum Hasan is the widow of Munnawar Hasan, former MP, who died in an accident in 2008. Her son Nahid Hasan is a Samajwadi MLA.

Mriganka Singh has made her political debut in the 2017 from Kairana assembly seat but had lost to Nahid Hasan.

Her nephew Anil Chauhan is said to be determined to claim his grandfather Hukum Singh’s political legacy and is believed to be a major factor that led to Mriganka’s defeat last year.

“The two families have been involved in a political battle since three generations. The game of one-upmanship has been going on in the constituency since years”, says Rakesh Tyagi a local journalist.

Jats and Gujjars are the two dominating castes in Kairana and since Hukum Singh was a Gujjar, the BJP is confident of the community supporting Mriganka Singh who is banking on a sympathy wave. The Jats, on the other hand, are believed to be sympathetic towards RLD president Chaudhary Ajit Singh who has been in political wilderness since the past few years.

The third political family from the adjoining Saharanpur district is that of Rashid Masood, whose nephew Imran Masood is Congress leader of considerable standing and has convinced the Congress leadership to support Ms Tabassum Hasan instead of fielding its own candidate.

Moreover the RLD has expanded its base among minorities after Amir Alam and Nawazish Ali, two other influential Muslim leaders, joined the party.

According to sources, the RLD is mainly banking on the support of cane growers — cutting across caste lines — since cane farmers are extremely disillusioned with the BJP government

Another reason for non-BJP parties to be confident is that in 2017 assembly polls, out of the five assembly segments in Kairana, the Congress had finished second in three (Nakud, Gangoh and Shamli)  and BSP on one (Thana Bhawan) while the SP had won the Kairana Assembly seat.