Caste equation plays an important role in the assembly elections of Uttar Pradesh. All political parties make no difference in wooing castes to win the Uttar Pradesh elections. All the parties are making new campaigns and strategies to woo OBCs, Vaishyas, Dalits and Brahmins. However, OBC caste has the highest importance among them all. It is said that just as the way to capture the power of the country goes through Uttar Pradesh (80 seats in the Lok Sabha), the way to capture the power of Uttar Pradesh (403 seats in the Vidhan Sabha) is dependent on the OBC vote bank. Realizing the importance of OBC voters, the Bharatiya Janata Party has given targets to its MLAs, MPs and ministers to woo the OBC castes. The BJP has given the responsibility of 10 villages to the OBC ministers, MPs and MLAs of the state. The population of OBC community is more in the villages which have been given responsibility.
What is strategy?
In fact, the BJP has now made a strategy to motivate its leaders to vote for the BJP by starting a contact campaign called ‘Samajik Sampark’ from Tuesday to November 30. Giving information on this matter, BJP’s OBC Morcha in-charge Dayashankar Singh said, “All the leaders will visit these villages, on the basis of the work done by the central and UP government, to motivate the voters of their caste to vote for the BJP.” BJP wants to strengthen its vote base in villages where voting is largely on the basis of caste. However, party leaders will encourage voters to vote on the basis of work being done by the government rather than caste during the event. The leaders will also give their own example to convince the public how the BJP has promoted leadership in their caste groups. Sometimes OBC front, sometimes giving place to OBC leaders in the cabinet and sometimes passing the reservation bill for OBC were also part of BJP’s strategy. This time BJP is making constant efforts to unite OBC voters. While on one hand BSP and SP are trying to woo Brahmin voters, on the other hand BJP’s focus this time is on OBC community.
Why BJP’s focus on OBCs?
In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, BJP’s focus was on non-Yadav OBC and non-Jatav Dalit votes and BJP was also successful in winning their trust, but this time it is on OBC which will further ease the ladder of power. The core vote banks of the Samajwadi Party have been Yadavs and Muslims and the BSP’s Dalits and Muslims. The first choice of OBC voters has been the Samajwadi Party and due to these OBC voters, Ram Naresh Yadav formed the Janata Party government in UP in the year 1977, then Mulayam Singh Yadav became the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh thrice. After Mulayam Singh Yadav, in the year 2012, Akhilesh Yadav also got the support of OBC vote bank and he occupied the power of UP. This time the strategy of BJP is to make OBCs in its side.
Yadav’s support for SP is old
So far it has been seen that more than 90% of the Yadav community would have voted for the Samajwadi Party, while it was only due to 31 percent OBC voters that the BJP could come to power in 2017. The reason for this is that the BJP was successful in making a big dent in the non-Jatav Dalit vote bank of the BSP and the non-Yadav OBC vote bank of the SP.
BJP wants full support of OBC
In fact, the BJP had registered its strength only after recognizing the strength of the non-Yadav vote bank. This was the reason that the BJP was able to clinch the results in its favor in the 2014 Lok Sabha, 2017 Assembly and 2019 Lok Sabha elections. This time the aim of the BJP is to win over the entire OBC voters. From including 39 castes of the state in the Other Backward Classes, to include 23 OBC ministers in the 60 ministers in the state cabinet, then to form an OBC front and now a new strategy has been made to reach out to the people of the OBC community in every village.
Now let’s understand the importance of OBC voters:
The representation of OBCs in the total population of the country is more than 50 percent, while in Uttar Pradesh, their representation is about 50 percent, which includes Muslim OBCs. According to the 2011 census, the population of Uttar Pradesh is Forward Caste 23%, OBC 40-45 (Yadav 10%, Non-Yadav 35%), Dalit 20% and Muslim 19%.
Whose share in the OBC population?
According to the data of the Chair for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), at present Uttar Pradesh has Yadav 9% and non-Yadav OBC castes Kurmi-Patel 7%, Kushwaha-Maurya-Shakya-Saini 6%, Lodh 4%, Gadaria-Pal 3%, Nishad-Mallah-Bind-Kashyap-Kevat 4%, Teli-Shahu-Jaiswal 22%, Jat 3%, Kumhar/Prajapati-Chouhan 3%, Kahar-Nai- Chaurasia 3%, Rajbhar 2%, Gurjar 2% Huh.
Even in OBC, Yadav is considered a staunch supporter of SP, while the first choice of Muslims has been SP and then Congress. Sometimes by getting the support of the upper caste vote bank, the SP has got the power of the state many times.
UP’s Etah, Etawah, Farrukhabad, Mainpuri, Kannauj, Azamgarh, Faizabad, Ballia, Sant Kabir Nagar and Kushinagar districts are considered Yadav dominated and the SP’s presence here has also been very strong. However, Akhilesh Yadav’s wife could not save the Kannauj seat in the last Lok Sabha elections, while Azamgarh remains Akhilesh Yadav’s stronghold. In the year 2012, the SP got the support of 66% Yadavs in the state, whereas in 2007 the same figure was 72 percent. Despite the defeat in the 2017 assembly elections, 68 percent of Yadavs supported the SP, while the support of non-Yadavs has decreased every year for the SP. This non-Yadav had proved beneficial for the BJP. However, in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP was successful in breaching the Yadav vote and this figure came down to 53% in favor of the SP. Then BJP came to power at the center with a majority. Talking about the Congress, it got the support of 11% Yadavs in 2009, but in 2014 it was only 8 percent.
Let us also tell you that it is only because of the support of OBC that the OBC leader has become the chief minister after Brahmins on the power of Uttar Pradesh. The names of OBC Chief Ministers are Chaudhary Charan Singh (twice), Ram Naresh Yadav, Kalyan Singh (twice), Mulayam Singh (3 times), Akhilesh Yadav.
Realizing the importance of the vote of Yadavs as well as non-Yadavs, the BJP has been trying to channelize the Yadav vote in its favor since the 2017 results. This is the reason that Girish Yadav from Jaunpur was made a minister in the Yogi government while Harnath Yadav from Etawah was made a Rajya Sabha member. Even behind giving importance to Subhash Yaduvansh in the party, Yadav vote has to be cultivated. Apart from this, the Yogi government of UP had strengthened the 13 percent vote bank by including 17 most backward castes in the Scheduled Castes.
Overall, this time BJP wants to make the entire OBC community in its favor in the upcoming assembly elections, for this, the visit of big leaders of BJP is going on in Yadav dominated areas like Kushinagar and Azamgarh. Along with this, BJP is also working on a plan to make a big dent in Akhilesh Yadav’s core vote bank by taking the benefits of government schemes to the public. If the BJP succeeds in this, then the results of the assembly elections may get the support of the entire OBC community for the BJP, whose effect may endanger the existence of the SP.
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