SPECIAL REPORT Fatehpur Sikri, the must-see stopover for tourists driving from Agra to Jaipur via Bharatpur, is in the news, and it has little to do with the proposed new attractions at the famous Mughal-era monument. Even as the campaign cacophony reaches the crescendo here, the voters have a lot to discuss beyond politics.
Bollywood star power is in ample display here, courtesy the irrepressible Amar Singh who is contesting on a Rashtriya Lok Dal ticket from the seat this time. Never the one to shy away from flaunting his connections with the high and the mighty and the glamorous, the former Samajwadi Party leader has roped in a number of former and current Bollywood personalities to spice up his campaign.
Sridevi, Boney Kapoor, Dimple (Kapadia) Khanna and Jaya Prada have already been here to drum up support for him, and if Amar Singh’s persuasive skills are any indication, more may be on the way, with the names of Suniel Shetty, Mahima Chaudhary, Asrani and Zeenat Aman doing the rounds. The constituency is among the 12 that go to polls on April 24 in the third phase in the state.
It is difficult to predict whether the huge crowds attracted by the procession of film people will translate into votes for Singh, but he is certainly living up to his reputation as a highly networked person. To bring lightness to the drab and heavy campaign proceedings, he has been regaling the audience with his trademark witticisms and statements laced with Hindi and Urdu poetry. He has managed to grab the attention of voters, if not convinced them of his chances of winning the seat.
It is a seat dominated by Jats, Thakurs and Muslims and yet Seema Upadhyaya of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) had won it in 2009, defeating Raj Babbar of the Congress. Fatehpur Sikri has never been Amar Singh’s political arena and yet, Ajit Singh has reposed confidence in the Thakur leader’s tenacity and film industry connection to hope for a surprising result.
The Ajit Singh-led RLD is the latest political destination of Amar Singh. Till February this year, rumors were rife that Amar Singh was joining the Congress and would be this party’s candidate from Gautam Buddh Nagar (Noida) close to Delhi. But instead he joined RLD – an ally of the Congress. In 2011, he had formed his own political party Rashtriya Lok Manch and fielded candidates in 360 seats in the 2012 Uttar Pradesh Assembly election.
None of these could win. Till 2010, he had been with the Samajwadi Party and grew as a strong general secretary. It was largely due to his efforts the SP supported the then UPA government in 2008 to survive the no-confidence move over the nuclear deal with the US. He belongs to Azamgarh in eastern UP and his erstwhile party was formed on the premise of demanding the creation of a separate Purvanchal (eastern UP) carved out of UP.
His present party, RLD, is a strong votary of a Harit Pradesh, a separate state in western UP. The RLD, under its alliance deal with the Congress, is contesting on eight seats - Kairana, Bijnore, Bulandshahr, Baghpat (polling was held in these seats on April 10), Amroha (polling held on April 17), Mathura, Hathras, and Fatehpur Sikri (polling due on April 24.) In 2009, RLD had won five out of the seven seats it had contested in alliance with the BJP. Early this year, Jaya Prada’s joining the Congress was said to be almost certain but the hitch was her pre-condition to include Amar Singh in the deal, to which there were reservations in the Congress.
Obviously the Congress did the next best thing by persuading ally and Union minister Ajit Singh to include both in his RLD. “This is a political life-saver for Amar Singh as no other party is willing to take him in and his solo effort Rashtriya Lok Manch failed miserably. He is a member of the Rajya Sabha till November 25, 2014 and needs to make some rehabilitation arrangements fast,” says Mukesh Chandra, a veteran journalist who has seen UP politics up close for many years.
Amar Singh had resigned as SP general secretary in January 2010 and Jaya Prada had followed suit. During his association with SP, he brought visibility, glamour and international recognition to the SP whether it was in power in UP or not. Among his friends were top industrialists and film stars. Among the lows in his career was a stint in Tihar Jail when he was found to be involved in the cash-for-votes scam. He had taken a brief respite from active politics after his kidney failure, replacement and prolonged medical treatment in India and abroad.
Those in the film industry and outside who have still stuck with him say he is a friend always with you in times of need. And Amar Singh always makes it a point that he is rich (he disclosed his and his wife’s combined assets to be worth Rs 100 crores at the time of filing his nomination) and therefore he is not in politics to earn money or power. It was Amar Singh’s persuasion that made Mulayam inducted BJP’s Kalyan Singh into SP. “The move angered Azam Khan and he left the SP in a huff. Mulayam realized his mistake soon and now only expelled Amar Singh from the SP but persuaded Azam to return to party fold as the party started losing Muslim support,” said an SP leader.
Since then, Amar Singh has been making veiled attacks on Mulayam. In an attention-grabbing statement a month ago, he had offered to campaign for the SP president Mulayam Singh Yadav in Azamgarh, to ensure that the Bharatiya Janata Party did not win from there. It had caused much speculation about a perceived thaw in his relationship with estranged friend Mulayam, since Mulayam, too, had referred to Amar Singh’s role - without mentioning his name – in bringing in industrialists and investment to UP.
At a party meeting in Lucknow, Mulayam had said “there was a leader in our party who had brought industrialists to UP. He is no longer with the party but he used to understand me well and acted even before I asked him for something,” Mulayam had said. However, Mulayam’s cousin Ram Gopal Yadav had dismissed any possibility of a rapprochement between Mulayam and Amar, saying that Amar Singh was “a big zero” outside the SP.
Incidentally, Ram Gopal Yadav and chief minister Akhilesh Yadav have never shared a rapport with Amar Singh. In the fray in Fatehpur Sikri are, besides incumbent Seema Upadhyay (BSP) - Chadhary Babu Lal, a strong local Jat leader from the BJP, Pakshilka Singh of the SP, and Mahavir Solanki of the Aam Aadmi Party.
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