For one of her earliest and showiest rallies in Uttar Pradesh, four-time Chief Minister Mayawati chose Saharanpur, a constituency which perfectly snapshots her strategy for the election that hits its second phase on Wednesday. Saharanpur's population is 42% Muslims, 22% Dalits - the former is getting more attention from the 61-year-old than ever before, while the latter she hopes to tug back to her side after their significant desertion in the general election.Saharanpur votes on Wednesday, when Western Uttar Pradesh will pick 67 of the state's 403 legislators. Last week, 73 were elected.
For Mayawati, iconic Dalit leader, these are relatively easier rounds than the remaining five because she has traditionally been popular in the western part of the state, with its concentration of Dalits and Muslims. Saharanpur, a district with wood carving as its main stock-in-trade, cogently illustrates that: in the last state election, when Akhilesh Yadav scored a giant win, Mayawati won four of the seven constituencies here.To its south, Saharanpur borders Muzaffarnagar, which was relentlessly traversed by Muslim-Jat violence in 2013. Nearly 60 people were killed, most of them Muslim, thousands were forced to abandon their villages. The government of Akhilesh Yadav, the country's youngest Chief Minister, 37 years old at the time, was denounced for being unable to quickly check the violence, which lasted longer than 20 days. The army was brought in to restore calm.
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