After the results of 2019 Lok Sabha Elections were declared, a series of politically motivated murders have taken place in Uttar Pradesh. Within a week of results, more than half a dozen leaders from various political parties have been killed.
Most of the leaders who were killed belong to Samajwadi Party.
To ensure that the murders do not affect the morale of party workers, Akhilesh Yadav and Smriti Irani visited the families of the leaders who were killed from their respective parties.
Smriti’s Close Aide Murdered in Amethi
The series of murders began at Amethi, the constituency where BJP’s candidate Smriti Irani defeated Congress President Rahul Gandhi. It is one of the most high-profile seats in the country and the Congress has lost this seat after retaining it for decades.
After the win, the BJP leaders were celebrating but their jubilation soon turned into mourning. Irani’s close aide Surendra Singh was shot dead on 24 May. The motive behind the killing will be clear only after investigation concludes but since an FIR has been registered against a Congress leader, people are calling it a political murder. Smriti Irani herself was part of the funeral procession.
Another BJP leader Chandrapal Singh was shot dead on 25 May in Hapur. He was BJP’s ‘panna pramukh’ or booth level leader.
SP Leaders Killed in Ghazipur, Jaunpur
The incidents are not limited to a particular region of the state. In Ghazipur, a district that borders PM Modi’s constituency Varanasi, Zila Panchayat member and SP leader Vijay Yadav was shot dead on 25 May. Manoj Sinha, who was Minister of State for Railways in the first term of Modi government, had lost the election from Ghazipur.
In Jaunpur, which shares a border with Ghazipur, another SP leader Lalji Yadav was shot dead on 31 May in Sarai Khwaja area. He was a close aide of former minister Parasnath Yadav.
The List Covers Entire UP
The series of political murders isn’t limited to ‘Purvanchal’. On 29 May, BSP’s Bijnor in-charge Ehsan Ahmed and his nephew Shadab were shot dead. A double murder in broad daylight shocked Bijnor to its core. The leader was killed inside his office. The killers entered the office under the pretence of congratulating Ahmed and hid the gun in a box of sweets.
Another incident took place on 31 May near Noida. Ramteg Kataria, SP leader from Dadri, was gunned down. It has been a trend that violence often increases in Uttar Pradesh after polls are concluded but that was limited to Panchayat or local body polls where the electorate is small. In such cases, candidates can often figure out with reasonable certainty who voted for them and who didn’t. But this is the first instance when post poll violence at this scale has taken place in Uttar Pradesh after a Lok Sabha election.
(The story was originally published in Quint Hindi and has been translated by Anubhav Mishra)
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