LUCKNOW: The history-making performance of the BJP in Uttar Pradesh has reiterated its strategic prowess of winning elections.
More so, the show on the reserved seats — 84 SC and 2 ST — has clearly established the dexterity with which the BJP tends to make deprived and downtrodden communities the face of its welfare agenda.
This time, the party won 55 seats losing 21 from its tally of reserved seats – 76-- which it had won of 2017.
The results reflect that the BJP has succeeded in winning over the scheduled castes other than those non-Jatav castes who have been supporting it since 2014. The saffron party is believed to have made strong forays into Jatav vote bank which makes around 56 per cent of the Dalit electorate.
Scheduled castes, the traditional voters of BSP till a few years back, account for 19-21% of the population in UP. Almost all the mainstream political parties eye their support to get the edge the electoral battles.
In a more or less bipolar contest between the BJP and the SP, the saffron brigade seems to have managed the consolidation of the Dalit votes through the welfare schemes.
On the contrary, the SP failed to cut much ice among the SC voters who perceive it as a party of emboldened Yadavs who have been tormenting the deprived and downtrodden for decades.
In 2022, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav tried to woo the Dalits by inducting prominent BSP leaders like Lalji Verma, Ram Achal Rajbhar, Indrajit Saroj, but the Samajwadi Party seems to have reached nowhere.
On the contrary, BJP has been continuously challenging Mayawati’s domination over Dalits vote bank since 2014 first rallying behind the popularity of PM Modi followed by a host of welfare measures cutting through caste fault lines.
Experts said that the steps like double ration during pandemic, housing scheme, pension schemes and above all the law and order had enormous resonance on the ground socio-economically oppressed classes.
