A dose of religion and caste-based narrative is elevating the political temperature even because the script for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls is being written. The Samajwadi Party appears to benefit from these points and make the most of its social engineering method in its bid to cease the BJP from successful all 80 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh.
So, across the time the SP introduced its nationwide government on Sunday, occasion chief Akhilesh Yadav stated in Kannauj: “Yesterday, I went to a temple, and an try was made (by BJP folks) to forestall me from doing havan”.
Across the similar time, his shut lieutenant and nationwide secretary Rajendra Chaudhary participated in Sundarkand recital at an occasion in Lucknow.
Referring to his personal frequent statements on the Hindu epic Ramcharitmanas, Swami Prasad Maurya, the newly appointed nationwide common secretary of the occasion, stated in Lucknow that he’ll proceed to wrestle in opposition to the disrespect to Dalits, backwards, and tribals within the title of religion.
In a far nook of Lucknow, a handful of Akhil Bharatiya OBC Mahasabha volunteers burned copies of some pages of the Ramcharitmanas in assist of Swami Prasad Maurya’s stance.
By the point one may end going by means of the record of the 64-member nationwide government of the occasion on Sunday, it was fairly clear that the occasion is engaged in social engineering method for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
The record of 64 (new nationwide government) signifies that with out compromising a lot on the MY (Muslim-Yadav) issue, the SP needs to broaden additional among the many non-Yadav OBCs (different backward courses), Dalits, higher caste Hindus, and even non-Muslim minorities. Akhilesh already examined the method, to his occasion’s acquire, within the 2022 U.P. meeting elections.
He inducted a major variety of senior and influential OBC, Dalit, and higher caste leaders from the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Congress, and the BJP. Moreover, he performed the MY-OBC-Dalit card and resorted to the mushy Hindutva method. All these steps helped him improve his occasion’s tally of seats from 47 to 111 within the state meeting. On Sunday, he formalised the method by means of the record of 64 nationwide government members.
In Uttar Pradesh, the elections since 2014 have been largely BJP vs SP.
The BJP’s authentic core vote within the state was higher caste Hindus and the SP’s Muslim and Yadav. Higher caste Hindus within the state represent roughly 18% of the inhabitants, Muslims 20% and Yadavs about 9%.
The brand new Samajwadi Party nationwide government matches the caste percentages in Uttar Pradesh. The chief has 11 Yadavs, 10 Muslims and 9 higher caste members.
It’s the struggle for the OBCs and Dalit votes between the SP and the BJP that holds extra curiosity.
The state has almost 32% non-Yadav OBCs. The SP included 25 non-Yadav OBCs within the government. Towards almost 18-20% Dalits within the state, the SP government has six Dalits and a scheduled tribe member. The occasion made considered one of its Kerala members, a Christian, nationwide common secretary.
Aiming to win over OBCs, the SP had been harping on the caste census for “simply illustration of varied caste teams in jobs as per their share within the inhabitants”. In its 2022 U.P. meeting manifesto, the SP declared that it’ll get a caste census carried out on the state authorities degree if it got here to energy. It didn’t win the polls, however the neighbouring Bihar authorities undertook a caste census. Now, the SP has once more change into vocal about caste census within the nation and the state. Akhilesh on Saturday stated he had requested Swami Prasad Maurya to maneuver ahead on the caste census agenda as he had proposed.
After assembly Akhilesh, Maurya had stated that he or the occasion would write to the central authorities demanding the caste census.
Political analyst and former head of the division of political science Lucknow College SK Dwivedi, who had been intently watching the row triggered round Ramcharitmanas, says: “It’s all focused in direction of the approaching polls”.
He additionally stated the late Rajni Kothari, within the Nineteen Sixties-70s wrote in considered one of his books, that Indian politics can not eliminate caste components.
“He stated so true. Indian politics just isn’t capable of eliminate caste and religion. And that is unlucky. Swami Prasad Maurya and Akhilesh are targetting OBCs by means of the current political discourse round Ramcharitmanas.”
Concerning the new nationwide government of the occasion, Dwivedi stated: “It’s clear that Akhilesh desires so as to add OBCs and Dalits to Muslim-Yadav votes in favour of his occasion.”
He stated that the BJP was additionally engaged in a counter-narrative to draw OBCs and Dalits votes to itself.
Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati attacked each the BJP and the SP on Monday. She stated the 2 needed to polarise the folks on caste and communal traces earlier than the elections.
There are broad indications that the state government, which the SP would announce quickly, would have an analogous tone because the nationwide government with a concentrate on OBCs and Dalits.
The battle traces are drawn with the BJP saying it is going to win all 80 Lok Sabha seats in UP, and Akhilesh claiming the ruling occasion might not even win a single Lok Sabha seat within the state.