Samajwadi Party leader Kadir Rana has not been shy of wearing his caste identity on his sleeve as he hits the road to campaign for his daughter-in-law Sumbul Rana who is fighting the bye-poll for Uttar Pradesh’s Mirapur Assembly seat on November 20.

“When he came to campaign here, Rana Sahab highlighted that he and us belong to the same biradari” or community, said Pappu Singh, a Rajput in Bihargarh, a village with a nearly 70% Rajput population located 35 kilometres from Muzaffarnagar.

When Scroll asked Kadir Rana about reports that he and his family, who hail from the Muslim Rajput community, were to Hindu Rajputs in the constituency, he responded with a chuckle. “I do not need to make any appeals,” he said. Rajputs “know who pays heed to them and who does not”.

A party official sitting next to him added that Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Adityanath of the Bharatiya Janata Party is a Thakur, a name by which the Rajput community is also known. “… But what has the BJP done for them?” he asked.

Rajputs account for only about 15,000 of the nearly 3.15 lakh voters in the Mirapur constituency, according to estimates by locals. Though this number might appear to...