Yogi Adityanath-ruled Uttar Pradesh is witnessing a political row over another possible instance of bulldozer force a month before the byelection, scheduled for nine Assembly seats in the State on November 13.

On October 13, communal clashes in the Maharajganj area of Bahraich district left one person, identified as Ram Gopal Mishra, dead and several wounded. The police have arrested over 80 accused persons, mostly Muslims, while several young men have reportedly fled the area fearing police action.

The accused have been booked under sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, including 121 (voluntarily causing hurt or grievous hurt to deter public servant from his duty), 132 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty), 309 (robbery) and 191 (every member of an unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object).

But opposition leaders have condemned the riots as “pre-planned,” alleging that the BJP is deliberately engineering communal tensions to sway the upcoming November election.

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In the immediate aftermath of the violence, the Public Works Department (PWD) declared the Kundasar-Mahasi-Nanpara road—the focal point of the disturbances—as a major district road. Between October 17 and October 23, notices were issued to 23 houses and shops owners in the area, with a striking 20 from the Muslim community.

The notices mandated the removal of illegal constructions within three days, citing regulations that prohibit structures within 60 feet of the road’s centre without prior approval. Though the PWD notices gave three days time, the affected families have got relief from the Allahabad High Court.

Meanwhile, the Adityanath government’s action is being seen as part of his larger politics wherein bulldozers symbolise his communal aggression. Ever since Adityanath became Chief Minister, the State has witnessed liberal use of police encounters and demolition drives against alleged criminals from the Muslim community. No wonder, bulldozers were made the engine of his electoral campaign in the run-up to the 2022 State Assembly election.

But the row over the intended use of bulldozers in Bahraich has taken an intriguing turn after a BJP MLA filed an FIR against members of his own party, accusing them of inciting communal violence during the Durga idol immersion on October 13.

This unprecedented move ahead of Assembly byelection has brought the ruling party under the scanner. Javed Ali Khan, a Samajwadi Party (SP) Rajya Sabha MP, lambasted the State government for the communal flare-up. “Since the bypolls are round the corner, the ruling party is completely relying on Hindu-Muslim polarisation. The BJP-led State government has abdicated its responsibilities completely,” Khan told Frontline, adding that, “A riot is always planned and organised. In Bahraich too, the rioters were deputed whereas the local people have acted very responsibly.”

Khan referred to a viral video in which two accused persons, Prem Kumar Mishra and Saburi Mishra, purportedly claimed that violence in Bahraich was “sponsored”. They confessed to having taken part in it. Both of them were later arrested. Earlier, the Bahraich Superintendent of Police Vrinda Shukla had termed the claims made in the video clip as the “rambling of drunk men”.

“Shame on BJP’s politics and its hunger for power,” Akhilesh Yadav, the SP supremo and former Chief Minister, said in a video appearance on social media as he accused the ruling party of conspiring to incite riots. “The BJP has lost its face in the wake of new revelations,” he said, referring to BJP MLA Sureshwar Singh’s FIR.

Singh’s FIR incidentally names BJP workers, including Aarpit Srivastava, the president of the BJP youth wing, Anuj Singh Raikwar, and Shubham Mishra. The FIR accuses them of violent acts such as rioting, stone-pelting, and attempted murder. It details the violent protests surrounding the deceased Ram Gopal Mishra, during which Singh and his associates were reportedly attacked with stones and faced gunfire.

The role of electronic media

On October 23, Singh clarified his position at a press conference held at his residence. “It was only after the case was registered that I learned Arpit Srivastava is the city president of the BJP’s youth wing. Beyond that, I do not believe anyone from the BJP was involved,” he stated. “I have made it clear that filing a case does not equate to someone being guilty. There are CCTV cameras at the incident location. Investigators will review the footage, and appropriate action will be taken against anyone found guilty, including those who fired shots or threw stones.”

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Notably, the role of electronic media has also come under scrutiny for adding fuel to the communal fire. Several TV channels and media outlets claimed that Ram Gopal Mishra was allegedly brutalised before he was killed, quoting a purported postmortem report. The police have rejected such claims. Without referring to media reports, the Bahraich police wrote on social media that the misleading claims were aimed at disturbing communal harmony.

On October 21, the Allahabad High Court granted relief to individuals served with demolition notices for alleged illegal structures, extending the deadline for filing responses by 15 days. This decision followed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by the Association for Protection of Civil Rights, represented by its Vice President for UP East, Sayed Mehfuzur Rehman. The petition challenged the notices issued in the Mahsi area of Bahraich district, where recent violence occurred amid claims that the UP government intends to demolish properties belonging to those allegedly involved in the unrest. The case is scheduled for its next hearing on November 4.

On October 22, the Supreme Court indirectly warned the Adityanath government regarding potential bulldozer action. The court emphasised that it is the State government’s “choice” to risk contravening its directives. However, the court clarified that it would not intervene if the structures in question are deemed illegal.

Previously, on October 1, the Supreme Court had reserved judgment on petitions challenging the demolition of homes as a punitive measure, a practice commonly referred to as “bulldozer justice”. A bench of Justices B.R. Gavai and K.V. Viswanathan clarified that demolitions cannot occur solely because an individual is an accused or convicted criminal. During the hearings, the bench discussed guidelines to prevent the misuse of local laws regarding demolition, ensuring due process is followed. They announced plans to issue “pan-India guidelines” that will apply equally to all communities.

“Of late, the higher judiciary has sent a positive signal, we are hopeful that it will discourage the BJP’s ‘bulldozer’ politics in the days to come,” said Javed Ali Khan.

Akhilesh Yadav has the relaxed demeanour of the political giant killer that he proved to be in the 2024 Lok Sabha election. The former Chief Minister and Samajwadi Party (SP) chief knows his place in the sun and shares insights with ease. In contrast, the ruling BJP in Uttar Pradesh is tied up in knots as the party’s leaders admit they had no clue what was coming (the BJP won 33 of the State’s 80 seats and the SP won 37). There is also no clarity about future equations, be it in the party’s State unit or between Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and the national BJP, where Home Minister Amit Shah continues to reign supreme.

So when we tracked down Lallu Singh, the two-term BJP MP from Faizabad (the seat that includes Ayodhya), who spectacularly lost to the SP’s Dalit veteran Awadhesh Prasad, all he would say was that he had nothing to say. His silence was revealing, as was the extreme caution about not being quoted in any media or social media outlets. Over the years, as Faizabad MP and earlier as an MLA for five terms, Lallu Singh, whose origins are in the RSS, has been an accessible political figure. But this historic defeat at the epicentre of Hindutva mobilisation has silenced him, presumably because it is not clear which level of the party leadership is to be blamed, the national wing that bet all on the Ram Mandir or the State wing that actually handled the ground-level arrangements.

Discontent in Ayodhya

However, other voices were heard loudly in Ayodhya: BJP supporters, loyalists, and workers spoke openly of the constant harassment that followed the build-up to, and the aftermath of, the January 22 inauguration of the Ram Mandir. Pandit Shiv Das, who has voted for the BJP all his life and attended the temple inauguration, said that the people of Ayodhya were harassed by the police and the bureaucracy. VIP zones were created, lands taken, and properties bulldozed, and it became difficult for residents to even move about freely.

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Das also explained how small-scale industries lost out. For instance, earlier local people made and sold diyas from handcarts at the temples, but their livelihoods have now been destroyed, with all temple-associated businesses going to outsiders and big contractors. At a khadi store stacked with “Jai Shri Ram” stoles, a resident told us that what happened on Ram Navami this year (April 17), should have sent out warning signals. Most of the laddoos prepared in anticipation of several lakh visitors on that day had to be thrown away because people just could not reach Ayodhya and many did not even attempt to come as the town has stopped being a place for ordinary pilgrims.

These complaints come from sections that are loyal to the BJP, and are mostly dominant caste. Of the five Assembly segments that constitute the Faizabad Lok Sabha seat, the BJP was behind in four but ahead by a few thousand votes in the Ayodhya city segment. Beyond the disaster in Ayodhya, a larger story played out across the State: OBCs and a section of Dalits voted against the BJP. The SP’s groundwork for nearly two years on what it called the PDA (pichda, or backward caste; Dalit; and alpasankhyak ,or minority) coalition paid off.

Byelections for 10 Assembly seats are due in October-November, and the BJP will be hoping that the people’s anger has been assuaged and that some dominant caste and urban voters who did not cast their vote will return, now that the party is in a crisis. It is also looking for a shift in the OBC and Dalit vote. While Adityanath has been given a free hand, there is anxiety here, at a time when the subaltern groups are shifting away from the BJP, as he is from the dominant Thakur caste. Akhilesh Yadav has raised the issue of the rape and murder of two Dalit teenagers who were found hanging in Farrukhabad, and begun a campaign to say the BJP is fundamentally anti-women, besides being anti-OBC and anti-Dalit.

Back to basics for the BJP

Still, Adityanath will use the administrative machinery in every possible way. For the BJP it is back to basics on every front, such as displaying anti-Muslim bias through rhetoric, policy, and harping on the community getting special treatment when it is actually being targeted. The psych-ops of so-called Hindu victimhood are currently in full flow since the BJP’s politics at the elemental level begins and ends with obsessing over and targeting Muslims.

The SP and the Congress are on an entirely different tack, demanding a caste census and the expansion of reserved categories. The SP has been diligent in highlighting examples of reserved jobs going to general category candidates and large-scale corruption in land allotment in Ayodhya. Former MLA and local SP leader Pawan Pandey has tirelessly highlighted cases of villagers not getting adequate compensation for lands, such as those acquired for the airport in Ayodhya, and of big builders “with Gujarat connections” getting prized lands for a song.

The other crisis confronting the BJP comes through when talking to villagers in Mohanlalganj, a reserved Lok Sabha seat on the outskirts of Lucknow. The BJP was defeated here despite a very efficient outreach of free rations to households to get the labharthi (beneficiary) vote. The working-class families here did receive free rations, but they consider it their right and not largesse from the Modi/Yogi regime. As one of them quipped: “Are we dogs at whom they throw rotis? Or the bandua mazdoor [bonded labour] of Dilli Raja and Lucknow Maharaja?”

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It is a lesson in itself that in the Mohanlalganj seat, a two-term Pasi Dalit MP of the BJP, Kaushal Kishore, was defeated. Ironically, a Pasi Dalit (Awadhesh Kumar) triumphed in Faizabad. This is the reality in the part of Uttar Pradesh referred to as Awadh. At one of the stops on the road from Lucknow to Allahabad that passes Rae Bareli, an old wizened farmer, Lalla, who voted for the Congress in the Unchahar segment of the Rae Bareli seat, said: “We did what we had to.” Life is difficult and hopes of jobs have dimmed, while falling sick is a disaster in the face of the poor public health infrastructure in the State.

So, when the cup brimmeth over with bad news, there is to be a crackdown on its dissemination. Adityanath’s new social media policy enforces stringent punishment, such as a life-term, for content deemed abusive and “anti-national” and tries to promote “positive content” offering payment up to Rs.8 lakh to those who create videos, posts, or tweets about the achievements of the regime. If it was not so terrible, it would be hilarious. Now paid influencers will get paid more to praise the Adityanath regime, even as ordinary folks and the media could be harassed for even a critique. It sounds like North Korea, but it is the republic of Uttar Pradesh, where the ruling party has been badly jolted.

Saba Naqvi is a Delhi-based journalist and author of four books who writes on politics and identity issues.