Jat-Muslim poll engineering in western UP via Rakesh Tikait, Jayant Chaudhary

Farmer leader Rakesh Tikait and RLD chief Jayant Chaudhary are looking to re-create Jat-Muslim social engineering in western Uttar Pradesh ahead of assembly election. India Today visits the region that saw communal riots in 2013 to see the poll mood among voters.

In Indian politics, most cases of sheer coincidences are carefully crafted circumstances.

Last Thursday, Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) president Jayant Chaudhary and Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Rakesh Tikait were seen together paying homage to former Prime Minister Chaudhary Charan Singh, the “kisan neta”, on his birth anniversary at his Kisan Ghat memorial in Delhi. And, I couldn’t convince myself that the coming together could be termed “sheer coincidence”.