LUCKNOW: Taking a cue from the pages of the success story of Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) which had mobilised non-Yadav backward classes in its favour and had romped home with a mammoth majority in 2017 assembly polls, the Samajwadi Party is concentrating on extracting the support of non-Yadav voters to sit in the saddle of Lucknow in 2022 assembly polls.
The saffron party had tightened the hold on dominant backward classes other than Yadavs in 2017 by picking up Keshav Prasad Maurya to head party’s state unit ahead of 2017 electoral battle and later appointing him as deputy CM of the state. The Mauryas have a sizeable presence in eastern UP districts while Kushwahas are in large numbers in central UP and Bundelkhand.
There are 42-45 per cent OBC voters in UP. Yadavs are around 9 per cent of those, and have traditionally supported the Samajwadi Party. Parties continue to fight over the 32-35 per cent of non-Yadav OBC votes. This was evident in Modi cabinet rejig in August when among the 28 new OBC ministers, only one was a Yadav.
The Samajwadi Party (SP) has a dedicated vote bank in M-Y (Muslim-Yadav) combination. There are 9 per cent Yadav voters in UP. According to Prof AK Mishra, a political scientist, around 8 per cent of Yadavs are expected to go with the SP. Similarly, Muslims are 19 per cent of Uttar Pradesh’s population and about 15% of them may vote for the SP, because they feel that only Akhilesh Yadav can give a strong fight to the BJP.
Kurmis in the picture
Kurmis are the second largest OBC community after Yadavs in UP. They hold sway over 16 UP districts with around 12 per cent population. These districts include Mirzapur, Bareilly, Sonbhadra, Unnao, Banda, etc. The BJP had been cementing ties with other caste leaders like Anupriya Patel, a Kurmi, to woo the Kurmis and also Sainis.
Meanwhile, Akhilesh Yadav has been looking to rope in a large number of new Kurmi and Rajbhar leaders to increase the SP’s support among non-Yadav backward castes. Shiv Shankar Singh Patel, former minister and BJP MLA from Banda, Dilip Verma, husband of BJP MLA Madhuri Verma from Bahraich, former Congress MP Bal Krishna Patel are among the non-Yadav backward caste leaders who have joined SP recently.
Besides, some of the most prominent faces of the BSP including Lalji Verma and Ram Achal Rajbhar, two strong leaders of Ambedkar Nagar district who were expelled from the BSP, have also joined the SP last week. While Lalji Verma has a clout among Kurmis and Sukhdev Rajbhar is a prominent Rajbhar leader.
Going by the 72-member Samajwadi Party state committee announced on October 19, Akhilesh has placed stakes on the most backward castes who make up more than 40 per cent of the members on the committee. Significantly, only seven Yadavs find a place in the state executive committee of the party apparently realising the worth of non-Yadav votes.
“Till Mulayam Singh Yadav was heading the party, he along with his close aide Beni Prasad Verma used to get both Yadav and Kurmi votes in large chunks. But after Beni, SP had been facing the dearth of Kurmi support,” said JP Shukla, a political analyst.
Banking on Muslim votes
Muslims are 19% of Uttar Pradesh’s population and about 15% of them may vote for the SP, because
they feel that only Akhilesh Yadav can give a strong fight to the BJP