Muzaffarnagar: With just a year to go for general elections, political parties have begun their informal campaigns in UP. On Tuesday, Rashtriya Lok Dal chief Ajit Singh held a meeting with senior Jat and Muslim leaders and appealed to them to bridge the gulf created between the two communities during the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots.“Every Jat should shake hands with at least one Muslim daily. Members of Jat community should also start visiting homes of their Muslim brethren,” Singh said, adding that “the beginning of the end of BJP rule will begin from this place (western UP) only”. Having completely lost political ground in his home turf in the past few years, Ajit Singh’s visit is being seen as an attempt to reunite Jats and Muslims, a strong political coalition his father and former prime minister Chaudhary Charan Singh had stitched together many decades ago.Addressing a public meeting at the local party office, the former Union minister said, “This is the region which remained unaffected even in the aftermath of Babri mosque demolition in 1992. However, the communal riots in 2013 split the two communities here. But the time has come for them to reunite. Jats and Muslims should celebrate Eid and Holi together. Forget what happened in the past and focus on the future.”Later, Singh told TOI, “I am here for the sake of communal harmony and not for politics.”Many prominent Jat and Muslim leaders from the region were present at the meeting. Jat Sangarsh Samiti has held several similar meetings in the region in the recent past.In its national executive held last year in March, the RLD, which won only one seat out of the 357 it contested, had blamed the party’s complete rout on “polarisation because of BJP’s divisive campaign.”Known predominantly as a Jat party, the RLD lost its traditional support base after the Muzaffarnagar riots of 2013, after which Jats voted for the BJP in large numbers the following year for the general elections. "Jat anger" against the BJP was a major talking point before and during the elections, and it was expected that the RLD would be able to woo back its voters. However, it only managed to win the Chhaprauli seat by a small margin, and lost in all other seats even in the Jat-dominated western UP belt, failing to capitalise on the resentment against BJP within the community.Many senior leaders in the party had admitted that the RLD's cadre lost enthusiasm when turncoats from different parties were given preference in ticket distribution over leaders who had been with the party for many years.

Stay updated with all the Meerut Latest News headlines here. For more exclusive & live news updates from all around India, stay connected with NYOOOZ.