Just before the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, many big leaders of backward classes from the Bharatiya Janata Party had joined the Samajwadi Party. While questions were being raised about the future of the BJP, which reached the throne of power in 2017 with 102 OBC MLAs, the party managed the backward voters in a brilliant manner after the stampede in the house. Regarding the UP assembly elections, the BJP knew that it could not occupy power without mobilizing the votes of the backward castes. Due to this, the party completely fielded Keshav Maurya, who was the poster leader of the 2017 assembly elections, in the electoral fray. Keshav also worked hard in the seats dominated by the backward castes and the result of the same is visible in the exit polls.
Sources associated with the BJP say that when the leaders who had joined the party before 2017 joined the SP in 2022, the central leadership spoke to the state leadership. A source on the condition of anonymity said, “Keshav Maurya was given clear instructions to focus on the seats where the leaders who left the party have influence. As a star campaigner, Keshav campaigned in the entire state, but in the areas where backward votes were decisive, Keshav Maurya’s close friends camped and tried to pacify him.
BJP played trump card like this
Another source said that at present the state presidents of all the major political parties of the state come from OBC society. Swatantra Dev Singh from BJP, Naresh Uttam Patel from SP, Ajay Kumar Lallu from Congress and Bhim Rajbhar from BSP were trying to woo the caste voters. In such a situation, the BJP organized a meeting of Keshav in the areas dominated by OBC voters, just before the end of the election campaign for various phases, so that they could be diverted from their minds to the BJP just before the campaign ended.
Be it 1991 or 2017, only OBC leader became BJP’s savior
Let us tell you that OBC leaders have always been at the center of the BJP’s entire journey in Uttar Pradesh. While Kalyan Singh rose to the chief minister’s chair in 1991 by becoming the face of the party during the Ram Mandir movement, Keshav Maurya had the electoral command in the state even during the 2017 assembly elections. Journalists, who have covered the politics of UP for a long time, believe that after Kalyan Singh, the BJP did not have any big OBC face in UP and that is why the party had to face exile for 14 years in the state.