Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Jan 14: As expected, seven of the BJP deserters in Uttar Pradesh, including two ministers in the Yogi Adityanath cabinet, joined the Samajwadi Party on Friday and immediately claimed that it was the “beginning of the end of the ruling party.”
As the SP president and former chief minister Akhilesh Yadav was rejoicing and welcoming the BJP rebels, all of them belonging to the Other Backward Classes (OBC) in his party, in the party, the chief minister Yogi Adityanath initiated the “dalit dinner diplomacy” by taking lunch at the residence of a dalit leader in his hometown Gorakhpur. In a state where cast equation play the most dominant role in the Assembly elections, Yogi’s luncheon with a dalit leader was a clear indication that the BJP would try to play dalits against the OBCs in the February – March elections in the state.
Yogi, whose party and government are facing hard times after 10 MLAs (and a 11th from allies Apna Dal) including thee former members of his cabinet, walked out this week less than 30 days before polls, hit back at Akhilesh Yadav declaring “social exploitation” and not “social justice” was common in UP under Samajwadi Party rule.
The BJP government, on the other hand, the Chief Minister said, was working for the development of every section of society without any discrimination. Yogi’s statement apparently was to counter the identical claims of the BJP deserters that the Yogi government had been consistently ignoring the interests of the dalits and OBCs forcing them to quit the party. “The goal of social harmony is to continue to grow… I had the good fortune of receiving khichdi prasad at Amrit Lal Bhartiji’s house at Jhungia in Gorakhpur today. Thank you very much Bhartiji!” the Chief Minister’s Twitter handle said. Videos of the lunch showed a sombre Yogi Adityanath sitting cross-legged on a bright blue mat, with Bharti, looking warily around him, seated a few feet to his left.
Former Uttar Pradesh ministers Swami Prasad Maurya, the first BJP minister to quit, and Dharam Singh Saini – who resigned this week from the Yogi Adityanath government and the ruling BJP less than 30 days before Assembly polls joined the SP. Five other BJP MLAs – Roshanlal Verma, Brijesh Prajapati, Mukesh Verma, Vinay Shakya and Bhagwati Sagar – as well as Chaudhary Amar Singh of the Apna Dal, which is allied with the ruling party – also joined the Samajwadi Party today.
“Today the conch shell has sounded for the end of the BJP. By misleading the people of the country and state, the BJP has thrown dust in their eyes and exploited people. Now it has to be eliminated… and Uttar Pradesh has to be freed of exploitation,” Swami Prasad Maurya said after joining.
For Akhilesh Yadav who has established himself as the BJP’s main rival in the February-March election, the acquisition of these OBC leaders is a big boost. In 2017 the BJP’s strategy was to win over the non-Yadav OBC castes given Yadav’s most loyal voters are seen to be Yadavs and Muslims. This time round, the Samajwadi Party leader’s game-plan is to pull in the non-Yadav OBC leaders.
Another former minister Dara Singh Chauhan, who followed Swami Prasad in quitting the BJP, and MLA Awtar Singh Bhadana, are believed to be headed to the Rashtriya Lok Dal, an ally of the SP.
Though for Akhilesh Yadav, who has established himself as the principal rival to the BJP, the acquisition of the OBC leaders from the BJP would be a big boost for his party, his nightmare may begin when he stars distribution of ticket. All of the BJP deserters would demanding SP ticket to contest next month’s elections directly coming into conflict with many of the local party workers waiting for years for election ticket.
The immediate problem, for instance would be for the Nakur Assembly constituency in Saharanpur district which was represented by the BJP deserter Dharam Singh Saini who has now joined the SP. He would be a leading claimant for the SP ticket from Nakur and would clash with former Congress secretary Imran Masood who took recently resigned from the Congress and joined the SP. Masood was the runner up against Saini at Nakur both in 2012 and 2017.
Apart from Saini and Masood, there are a numbers of local SP workers who are also aspirants for the party ticket from Nakur, with their claims being based on the fact that they have remained with the party and worked on the ground even when it has been out of power since 2017.
This is not an isolated case. For Akhilesh will have to face a similar situation in over 18 Assembly seats where sitting MLAs of the BJP and BSP have either joined the SP in recent days or are headed to the party. Also, Akhilesh has forged alliances with seven smaller parties, which are also vying for seats for their respective candidates. These included Rashtriya Lok Dal, Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (PSP), Suheldeo Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP), Janwadi Party Socialist, Mahan Dal, Apna Dal (Kamerawadi) and NCP — in various constituencies across the state. The SP declared a couple of days ago that the Nationalist Congress Party’s K K Sharma will be a joint candidate of the SP-NCP alliance in Anupshahr in Bulandshahr district. In 2017, the SP’s Himayat Ali had finished third on this seat.
