Statues come alive as poll season warms up in U.P.

With the Assembly election less than a year away, statues of historical figures have once again become catalysts for political mobilisation among caste groups in western Uttar Pradesh.

On Sunday, tension arose in Sikauti, a small village in the Sardhana Assembly constituency of Meerut district, when the local administration removed the ‘Jat’ tag from a statue of Maharaja Suraj Mal, which was to be inaugurated at an event organised by the International Jat Sansad.

Seen as a symbol of Jat resistance against the Mughals in the 18th century, the ruler of Bharatpur is being presented as a Hindu king during the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) rule. In June 2025, the U.P. government approved the celebration of ‘Agra Vijay Diwas’ at Agra Fort, commemorating Suraj Mal’s capture of the fort on June 12, 1761.

In September 2025, following a High Court directive, the U.P. government banned caste-based rallies and public caste markers to curb symbolic politics. Opposition parties noted that the orders do not directly address religious or Hindutva symbols.

The self-styled group, which brought together Jat heavyweights from different parties on one stage, was led by former Union Minister Sanjeev Balyan, who has had a hot-and-cold relationship with the Yogi Adityanath-led administration since his defeat in Muzaffarnagar in the Lok Sabha election. The event saw Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann as the chief guest and Rashtriya Loktantrik Party chief Hanuman Beniwal as the star speaker.

Presenting Mr. Mann of the Aam Aadmi Party as the only Jat CM in the country, Mr. Balyan took on the administration and said he stepped back out of deference to the [Punjab] CM, otherwise he would have mounted a protest against the move to remove the Jat prefix (before the Sansad) on the plaque. “After discussion, the administration has promised to put it back in 15 days. If they don’t, we would hold a massive panchayat,” he said.

Interestingly, the event was held in Sardhana constituency, the stronghold of BJP’s Rajput face, Sangeet Som, who traded barbs with Mr. Balyan after losing the seat in 2022. In turn, Mr. Balyan’s supporters held Mr. Som’s ‘Rajput panchayats’ as one of the reasons for their leader’s surprise defeat in 2024.

Statue ‘purification’

In a similar development, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav “purified” the statue of 9th-century emperor Gurjar Mihir Bhoj with Ganga water during a rally in Dadri on Sunday. The gesture was a direct response to a controversy over whether the king belonged to the Gurjar or Rajput community.