That stern, weather-worn visage is still there. It once marked an eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation with Rajiv Gandhi at Delhi’s Boat Club lawns. But the glint has gone out of the eyes. Bharatiya Kisan Union chief Mahendra Singh Tikait is a shadow of his pugnacious self in the 1980s.

Tikait may no longer be the unbending leader of farmers, yet he is still a symbol that has political implications for friends and foes alike. Tikait remains the biggest Jat leader yet, the sardar of the Baliyan Khap (clan) comprising 84 villages. And being in his good books could enable parties to appropriate the political leadership of all the sugarcane farmers of the region—important at the moment because there is a ferment in that section arising out of non-payment of dues.

This Jat/farmer combination made Ajit Singh and Anuradha Chaudhary of the RLD stand by Tikait in his current stand-off against Chief Minister Mayawati of Uttar Pradesh. This despite Tikait’s son Rakesh Tikait having contested against the RLD for the Khatauli Assembly seat. While the BSP had defeated the RLD candidate by a handsome margin, Rakesh had been humbled, an indication that the Tikait clout was no longer as overwhelming as it once was.

For Mayawati, Tikait has proved a handy anti-Dalit icon and in many Jat-dominated villages like Sisauli across western Uttar Pradesh, Mayawati’s humbling of the Jat leader sends a positive message to Dalits who have to bear with casteism each day.

While all non-BSP leaders have shown sympathy for the BKU patriarch in smaller or larger measure, the BSP alone has stood against him. If the Congress blamed Mayawati for her haste in initiating police action against Tikait, having termed the 73-year-old Tikait’s remarks as unfortunate, the SP and the BJP openly issued statements in favour of the BKU leader. BJP’s local leader Hukam Singh also went to Sisauli to show his support for Tikait.

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