Firozabad’s Women Flaunt Their Politics With Bangles

FIROZABAD: Women in Firozabad parliamentary constituency are wearing bangles of different colours. At first glance, this may not seem unusual since Firozabad is the city of glassware and famous for its beautiful bangles.

But in Lok Sabha 2019 bangles are an assertion of the electoral preference of this constituency’s women voters.

Women workers are wearing bangles of their preferred political parties.

BJP’s women brigade wears saffron bangles while those with the SP-BSP alliance don red and blue bangles. Those supporting the Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party ( PSP) are wearing red, yellow and green bangles which are the colours of the PSP flag.

Firozabad Lok Sabha that has 16 lakhs voters, has over 4.2 lakh Yadavs and 2.3 lakh Muslims and it is this combination that makes it a Samajwadi bastion. Except for 2009, when Raj Babbar of Congress defeated Dimple Yadav in a by-election, Samajwadi Party has managed an easy win here.

This time the contest in this Yadav land is between Yadav and Yadav. Former SP leader Shivpal Yadav is challenging his own nephew and sitting MP Akshay Yadav, son of Prof Ram Gopal Yadav.

The family war is now being played out in the electoral arena and the vote bank, expectedly, is sharply divided.

Political analysts feel that this division in Yadav and Muslim votes would pave the way for BJP’s candidate Chandrasen Jadaun but Akshay Yadav begs to differ.

“My fight is against the BJP and uncle is of course trying to assist the BJP. His efforts to divide SP’s vote base will not succeed. People know that uncle is actually working for the BJP. I am confident of winning back my seat,” he says.

Shivpal Yadav, meanwhile, blames SP-BSP of trying to mislead the campaign. “Everyone knows who is working for BJP. I have worked at the grassroots level for the party and every worker knows me. If the BJP gains out of our politics and contesting election, what can we do? Our aim is to defeat the SP-BSP alliance which is nothing else but a Thag-Bandhan,” he says.

In his campaign, he highlights the “humiliation” he faced in Samajwadi Party and makes the battle a fight for honor and justice. While the youth among Yadavs continue to root for Akhilesh Yadav, the elders in the community are visibly sympathetic towards Shivpal Yadav.

The Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party is fielding candidates against the alliance, including family members. The party, however, has not put up any candidate against Mulayam Singh Yadav and also Dimple Yadav.

Elections in Firozabad will be held in the third phase on April 23.