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Bihar, Nitish Kumar feature prominently in Uttar Pradesh political discourse
Uttar Pradesh-based SBSP chief Om Prakash Rajbhar set outs on yatra that will end in Bihar, Apna Dal (K) leader Krishna Patel meets Bihar CM even as Uttar Pradesh deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya dares Nitish Kumar to contest from the state
It’s about a month since Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, an other backward classes (OBC) Kurmi leader, moved away from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and joined hands to run the government with the Rasthriya Janata Dal.
Ever since, both Bihar and Nitish Kumar have started featuring prominently in the political space in Uttar Pradesh.
On Monday, three political developments overlapped each other. The Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) leader and former minister Om Prakash Rajbhar, whose party so far is limited largely to eastern U.P, launched his ‘Savadhan Yatra’ that will culminate in Bihar. Rajbhar is an OBC leader who tied up with BJP in 2017 UP polls, with Samajwadi Party in the 2022 assembly elections and is now again expected to back the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls in the state.
“Yes, if we can do well in U.P, then can do so in Bihar too,” Rajbhar said when asked about why he was taking his yatra to Bihar, indicating a possible plan to weaken the non-BJP alliance that Nitish Kumar these days is attempting to put together.
Rajbhar also spoke of caste census, backed his quota within quota demand and said his party’s doors were open for lawmaker Shivpal Yadav, the estranged uncle of SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, who is among the leaders Kumar has approached for the proposed anti-BJP front in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
While Rajbhar set out on a Savadhan yatra, stating he is out to make the backwards aware of their rights and to tell them to be ‘savadhan (be aware)’ of politicians who harm their interests, Krishna Patel, who heads the Kurmi-dominated Apna Dal (Kamerawadi) faction that is backing the Samajwadi Party, met Nitish Kumar in Bihar.
Krishna’s daughter Pallavi Patel, an OBC leader, had contested the 2022 U.P. assembly polls on a Samajwadi Party ticket and created an upset in Sirathu from where she defeated deputy chief minister and BJP heavyweight Keshav Prasad Maurya, who is the most prominent OBC face of the party in U.P. Krishna’s other daughter and Union minister Anupriya Patel heads Apna Dal (Sonelal), the political unit that is backing the BJP, both at the Centre and in Uttar Pradesh.
“My husband (Sonelal) had a long association with Nitish ji whose efforts to forge an opposition unity are commendable,” she said after her meeting.
Apna Dal was formed by the late Sonelal Patel to provide a separate political platform to Kurmis, who along with Yadavs and Mauryas, are the dominant OBC groups in U.P. They shape politics from Uttar Pradesh to Bihar.
Leaders of Bihar’s ruling Janata Dal (united) unit in Uttar Pradesh had for the last few weeks been hinting at the likelihood of Nitish Kumar contesting a seat in U.P. Despite denial by Nitish, the buzz hasn’t died down, yet.
“It could be Phulpur, Ambedkarnagar, Mirzapur or Fatehpur,” a U.P. JD (U) leader had hinted. All four seats have a sizeable presence of Kurmis. Of the four, it is Phulpur that has dominated discourse, primarily because it was only in 2014 that Keshav Prasad Maurya had won the seat for the first time ever for the BJP and is known for its backward presence and its association with Congress top leadership as country’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru used to contest from here.
Maurya has been regularly hitting out at Kumar, daring him to contest from Phulpur.
“I challenge him to contest from here. He will forfeit his deposit,” Maurya said when asked for his views on the buzz about Nitish contesting from Phulpur or any other OBC-dominated seat in Uttar Pradesh.
“His aura was because of the BJP and now, with the BJP no longer there, he will know his political worth very soon,” Maurya said.
