Uttar Pradesh Lok Sabha Elections 2024: BJP's Arun Govil pins hope on Dalits & higher turnout

One of the 80 Lok Sabha constituencies in Uttar Pradesh, Meerut is likely to see a triangular contest between the BJP, the INDIA bloc and the BSP. The BJP has fielded Arun Govil, known for playing Lord Ram's character in popular TV serial 'Ramayana, from Meerut, which was Ravan's in-laws place, The BJP candidate's victory largely depends on division among dalit votes and higher voting percentage from the town.

His main challenger is Samajwadi Party's Sunita Verma, a Dalit by caste. Verma is a former mayor of Meerut and wife of former MLA Yogesh Verma. The BSP has fielded Devvrat Tyagi, a Brahmin by caste. However, the absence of a Muslim candidate from any major party has made the election interesting in this seat.

From last several Lok Sabha polls, Meerut has witnessed a triangular contest between BJP, SP and BSP with Muslim votes getting divided between SP and BSP. Dalits are also in large numbers in this Lok Sabha seat. It is the second largest voter grouping after Muslims. Majority of them traditionally vote for the BSP.

In the last Lok Sabha polls, when SP-BSP contested together the BJP could manage to win the seat by less than five thousand votes.

Govil, known for playing Lord Ram on TV, is hoping to leverage the Ram factor among the people in the backdrop of the construction of the temple in Ayodhya recently.

BJP is hoping that Govil will get a chunk of Dalit votes while higher voter percentage and the Modi factor can benefit the party while he fights the "outsider" tag.

ET spoke to the students at Chaudhary Charan Singh University and discussed the candidates and main issues concerning this Lok Sabha constituency.

Deepak Sharma, a research scholar standing with his friends outside the library, termed Govil as an "outsider." "Govil is an outsider. He is so sophisticated that he wears gloves while shaking hands and does not let people put garlands on him," Sharma pointed out.

Echoing similar sentiments, another research scholar, Ravi Kumar said,"Was there were no other suitable candidate for this seat? Yeh abhineta hain, neta nahi hain. Abhineta se neta banne mein bohot time lagta hai (He is an actor, not a politician. It takes a lot to become a politician)."

However, Sharma and his several friends said they will still vote for the BJP as their families have traditionally been voting for the BJP.

Ravi, a Khatik by caste, said that his village elders will decide whom to cast the vote as the SP has fielded a Dalit this time. His village has voted for the BJP in the past.

Mohd Yousuf, who works at a tailoring shop on Garh road in Meerut and hails from Khawajahanpur, said more than 90% people from his community will cast their vote for the SP candidate, adding that it also depends on Dalit votes eventually.

When ET spoke to the BJP workers about the party prospects on this seat at its local office, they acknowledged that the situation was tricky this time as there is no Muslim candidate in the fray and that the SP has fielded a Dalit. "Two factors are very important for our victory: higher voting percentage from Meerut assembly Cantt seat, division in Dalit votes and BJP getting a sizable Dalit vote share," a BJP worker said.

Yogesh Verma, husband of SP candidate Sunita Verma, said that the SP will get more than 95% of the Muslim votes in this seat. He also added that Dalits will also support them in large numbers as he himself was in BSP and hails from Jatav community, a huge population on this seat.