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Should SP be worried over BJP’s Yadav CM pick in Madhya Pradesh?
Having given a second Yadav chief minister to Madhya Pradesh (the first was Babu Lal Gaur, a Yadav from UP’s Pratapgarh), the BJP think tank now looks to engage Yadavs ahead of 2024 LS polls
LUCKNOW Nirdosh Yadav, a coconut seller at Lucknow’s busy Patrakarpuram crossing in Gomti Nagar, was focused more on a TV telecast from a nearby showroom, than on his customers.
“Apne samaj ka aadmi mukhyamantri bana hai (a person from our community has become the chief minister),” said Yadav, who hails from Barabanki, referring to BJP leader Mohan Yadav taking oath in neighbouring Madhya Pradesh.
Ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, due in April-May, such sentiment suits the BJP as it looks to up the ante by wooing Yadavs, the politically dominant OBC, which barring exceptions, has largely been seen as supporters of late Mulayam Singh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party in UP and a now-ailing Lalu Yadav’s Rashtriya Janata Dal in Bihar – the two parties now helmed by their sons Akhilesh and Tejashwi.
The BJP’s politics in these two states that send 120 MPs to the Lok Sabha, has largely focused on wooing non-Yadav OBCs.
Having given a second Yadav chief minister in Madhya Pradesh (the first was Babu Lal Gaur who was a Yadav from UP’s Pratapgarh), the BJP think tank now looks to engage the Yadavs ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
Mohan has a ready UP connect as his wife Seema is from UP’s Sultanpur.
Would such outreach harm the Samajwadi Party, which sees Yadavs as a loyal vote bank, despite successive losses in 2017 and 2022 assembly polls as well as the loss of key Lok Sabha constituencies like Azamgarh, which the SP considered its bastion.
“Can a puppet in someone’s hands really be a cause of concern to anyone? Would this leader have the guts to speak on caste census,” asked Samajwadi Party leader Lalji Verma.
As Sultanpur’s Om Nagar locality where a Yadav family with a RSS background rejoiced, it became clear that whether part of carefully calibrated move or by chance, in Mohan Yadav, the BJP now has a leader to showcase in the Hindi heartland.
“Both Mohan ji’s wife and his entire family have been RSS workers. But, the big message BJP is serving out not just to Yadavs but everyone else is that those who serve without any expectations will get their due. Now, this is one view that is bound to find favour with all. And from that point, the BJP move to project a Yadav leader with a RSS background as chief minister, someone whose in-laws are from Uttar Pradesh too, definitely is a ready connect,” said Pawan Sharma, a professor of political science from Meerut University.
“I think all are aware of the reasons that forced the BJP to appoint Mohan Yadav as chief minister. Akhilesh Yadav draws his popularity and connect not on the basis of his caste, but due to his socialist policies and development that happened in UP during his tenure between 2012 and 2017. I think the BJP was forced to back a Yadav due to Akhilesh Yadav’s PDA push,” said SP leader Sudhir Panwar.
However, not all feel the same. “Such tokenism doesn’t work, though the BJP surely appears to have made the move to woo Yadavs of UP and Bihar,” said Heera Lal Yadav, state secretary of CPI (M). “If the opposition bloc stays strong, the BJP will suffer the same fate as we saw in Ghosi bypoll when BJP candidate suffered a humiliating loss. In a sense, it (making Yadav as CM) showcases BJP’s desperation…the fact is the masses are indeed angry. Whether the opposition can tap the sentiment is the big question,” he added.
“This decision is taken with 2024 LS polls in mind. That fact that the BJP needed to replace a sitting, successful chief minister makes it clear that there is more to the decision than meets the eye,” said Chauthi Yadav, former professor of Banaras Hindu University.
