With an eye on the backward caste votes major political parties in Uttar Pradesh have started series of meetings at the ground level to influence this major section of society which can influence election.
The Bharatiya Janata Party has already initiated a process to hold backward caste meetings while the Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati has asked party leaders to start pichra varg sammelans in their respective areas.
According to census of 2011 over 44 per cent of UP’s population comprise backward caste. Around 21 per cent is dalit population. Yadavs among the backwards are staunch supporters of Samajwadi Party and therefore other parties are eyeing for non-Yadav votes.
BJP spokesman Hridaya Narain Dixit said that party has organised over two dozen backward caste meetings across Uttar Pradesh. The backward caste leaders of the party including Swamy Prasad Maurya have addressed party workers.
“The support BJP is getting among all sections of society including Backwards is tremendous. Not only backwards even OBCs are supporting BJP and Modi for its developmental policies,” he said.
A leading political commentator Badri Narain said that BJP is in alliance with Apna dal – the party of Kurmis and Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party (considered to be the party of the Rajbhars). The talk in political circles is that the BJP is working to stitch similar alliances in eastern U.P. with the Janvadi Party and other small parties which are influential among MBC castes such as lonia, Nonia, Gole-Thakur, lonia-Chauhan and Dhobhi.
“BJP’s strategy is to focus on the non-Jatav Dalit votes and non-Yadav backward caste votes to add to their core savarna (forward caste) vote bank. To appease its savarna base, the BJP is offering them representation at the organisational level and showcasing its commitment towards Brahminical-Hindutva agendas such as the construction of a Ram temple in Ayodhya,” Narain said.
“But more importantly, the party is targeting backward castes and Dalit castes. Taking a leaf out of the Bahujan Samaj Party’s (BSP) playbook, the BJP is luring these castes by providing organisational representation, organising caste-based rallies, celebrating festivals in the memory of their heroes and constructing their temples,” he said.
Narain said that for the first time it has ensured reservation in posts in the various party committees from booth level to the State level and assigned responsibilities to Dalits, backwards and women. By naming Keshav Prasad Maurya as its State unit president, the party has signalled the importance of castes such as Maurya, Murav and Kachhi to its scheme of things.
