Bhupendra Singh Chaudhary, Pankaj Chaudhary and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
Ajay Jaiswal, Jagran, Lucknow: To score a hat-trick in the 2027 assembly elections, the ruling BJP has once again placed its bet on the OBC (Other Backward Class) community for the post of President.
Be it Samajwadi Party or Bahujan Samaj Party, their eyes are on the vote bank of the backward society to become leader in the elections. That is why both the parties have also handed over the post of state president to leaders coming from backward communities.
After the Yadav community, the population of Kurmi and Maurya community is considered to be the highest among the backward castes in the state at about 44 percent. This is the big reason why BJP has handed over the command of the party to Pankaj Choudhary, who comes from the backward Kurmi community, before contesting the Assembly and Panchayat elections.
In the 2017 election in Kurukshetra, the BJP alliance created history in the state by winning 325 seats under the leadership of Keshav Prasad Maurya, who comes from a backward community. Even in the 2022 assembly elections, the command of the party was in the hands of Swatantra Dev Singh from the backward class.
The politics of Uttar Pradesh still depends on caste balance. OBC castes play a decisive role in elections. Only that political party is successful in reaching power which is successful in attracting the OBC community the most along with its base vote bank. Among the 79 OBC castes comprising about 44 percent of the population, Yadav community is considered to have the highest share of 10 to 12 percent.
Seeing no way to reach power only on the strength of Yadavs and Muslims (MY equation), SP has made Shyamlal Pal of Pal caste, who comes from non-Yadav backward community, the president of the party. Last year, in the Lok Sabha elections, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, along with the Congress, had given a big blow to the BJP through the PDA (Backward-Dalit-Minority) formula.
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Now, to blunt the edge of PDA in the assembly elections, the BJP government as well as the organization are keeping a close eye on the OBC vote bank. Describing SP's PDA as Family Development Authority, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath says that the OBC community has got the maximum share in the jobs of his government. Along with the beneficiary schemes of the double engine government, BJP is also engaged in helping the non-Yadav backward community, especially through the cabinet and organization.
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After making Pankaj, who has the most influence after Yadav and belongs to the 8 to 10 percent Kurmi community, as the president, BJP may soon give more importance to the backward classes in the reshuffle of the Yogi cabinet. Currently, there are 20 ministers from backward communities in the cabinet including Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya.
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To form a majority government again after two decades, Mayawati has also appointed Vishwanath Pal of Pal community as the state president to make inroads into the backward class with her core Dalit vote bank.
Also read- UP: After the election of BJP state president, there is a possibility of reshuffle and expansion in Yogi Adityanath cabinet in December itself.
However, looking at the way BJP is trying to woo the upper caste as well as the non-Yadav OBC community, it is believed that in the next assembly elections also, SP-BSP will face a big challenge to break into it.