04-11-2007, 03:27 AM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Charan Singh's legacy up for grabs </b>
Rajesh Kumar | Baghra (Muzaffarnagar)
BJP, BSP set to gain from split in Jat votes
This small hamlet on the Muzaffarnagar-Shamli highway mirrors the struggle to capture the space being created by a dwindling legacy. After nearly quarter of a century, Ajit Singh-led Rashtriya Lok Dal is contesting poll in the region on its own. In Ajit's isolation, the national parties see an opportunity to capture the area referred to as Jatland in the political parlance. Â
Even two-and-half decades after the death of his father Choudhury Charan Singh, Choudhury Ajit Singh has been maintaining a stranglehold in the neighbouring districts of Muzaffarnagar, Meerut and Baghpat, thanks to strategic alliances that he has been entering into with one partner or the other.
<b>Ajit Singh has repeatedly showed that for him lynchpin of an alliance is winnability rather than ideology. </b>Therefore, it's not surprising that during the past five years, he has tied knot and broken alliance without blinking eyelids. In the last Assembly poll, he had BJP for company, but by 2004, he had made an alliance with Samajwadi Party, and thereafter negotiated with Congress.
<b>Unfortunately, this time around, Singh finds himself dumped by one and all. Even his traditional supporters belonging to the Jat community have launched a political party and are contesting in an alliance with the Congress. Bharatiya Kisan Dal (BKD) led by legendary kisan neta Mahender Singh Tikait may not be a huge force today but certainly capable of giving Ajit Singh a run for his money</b>.
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Rajesh Kumar | Baghra (Muzaffarnagar)
BJP, BSP set to gain from split in Jat votes
This small hamlet on the Muzaffarnagar-Shamli highway mirrors the struggle to capture the space being created by a dwindling legacy. After nearly quarter of a century, Ajit Singh-led Rashtriya Lok Dal is contesting poll in the region on its own. In Ajit's isolation, the national parties see an opportunity to capture the area referred to as Jatland in the political parlance. Â
Even two-and-half decades after the death of his father Choudhury Charan Singh, Choudhury Ajit Singh has been maintaining a stranglehold in the neighbouring districts of Muzaffarnagar, Meerut and Baghpat, thanks to strategic alliances that he has been entering into with one partner or the other.
<b>Ajit Singh has repeatedly showed that for him lynchpin of an alliance is winnability rather than ideology. </b>Therefore, it's not surprising that during the past five years, he has tied knot and broken alliance without blinking eyelids. In the last Assembly poll, he had BJP for company, but by 2004, he had made an alliance with Samajwadi Party, and thereafter negotiated with Congress.
<b>Unfortunately, this time around, Singh finds himself dumped by one and all. Even his traditional supporters belonging to the Jat community have launched a political party and are contesting in an alliance with the Congress. Bharatiya Kisan Dal (BKD) led by legendary kisan neta Mahender Singh Tikait may not be a huge force today but certainly capable of giving Ajit Singh a run for his money</b>.
link
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