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Uttar Pradesh assembly polls: Big parties begin wooing smaller outfits
Uttar Pradesh is slated to go to the polls in February-March 2022 and parties are looking for potential allies
Uttar Pradesh’s smaller political parties are being wooed by the major political players in the run-up to next year’s assembly elections due to their influence in various pockets of the state.
With about eight to nine months to go for the elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Samajwadi Party (SP), the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Congress are vying with one another to keep these smaller parties in good humour ahead of the 2022 elections.
Union home minister Amit Shah’s meeting with Apna Dal (Sonelal) chief Anupriya Patel and Nirbal Indian Shoshit Hamara Aam Dal (Nishad) party president Sanjay Nishad in Delhi has set the pitch in this context.
Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party (SBSP), an erstwhile ally of the BJP, is also being sought after for an alliance, people familiar with the development claimed.
“The BJP has sent feelers to Rajbhar to join the alliance for the 2022 assembly elections,” said a SBSP leader who did not wish to be named.
But SBSP chief Om Prakash Rajbhar on Friday denied meeting BJP leaders.
The importance the BJP is giving to its allies Apna Dal (S) and Nishad party can be gauged from the fact that immediately after his interaction with UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Thursday, the Union home minister met Patel and Nishad. The BJP shared the photos of both the leaders meeting Shah on various social media platforms.
Apna Dal (S) enjoys influence over the Kurmi caste settled in the Mirzapur and Varanasi region of eastern Uttar Pradesh. It contested the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha polls and the 2017 assembly elections in alliance with the BJP.
While Apna Dal MLAs are ministers in the UP government, Anupriya was minister in the central government from 2016-19.
Recently, there was speculation about differences between the two parties over representation in the state and central governments. Purported efforts by the Samajwadi Party to woo Apna Dal (S) also set alarm bells ringing in the BJP camp.
To send the message that the relationship between both the allies was resilient, Shah met Patel, those in the know of things claimed.
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav was quick to hit back, alleging that there was something “dubious” in the meeting of the BJP leaders with the presidents of smaller parties.
The Nishad party that is said to be influential among the Kewat, Mallah, Nishad and Bind castes in central and east UP joined the alliance with the BJP before the 2019 Lok Sabha election. Sanjay Nishad’s son Praveen Kumar Nishad was elected to the Lok Sabha from Sant Kabir Nagar in eastern UP.
In the 2018 Lok Sabha by-poll, the Nishad party had given a jolt to the BJP by winning the Gorakhpur Lok Sabha seat. The SP and BSP had supported the Nishad party in the by-election for the prestigious seat vacated by chief minister Yogi Adityanath.
Of late, there had been murmurs about relations between the BJP and the Nishad party souring. Sanjay Nishad alleged that BJP had failed to fulfil its promises and the Nishad party’s request to include 14 backward castes in the scheduled castes’ list had also not been met.
People privy to the development claimed Shah assured Sanjay Nishad that the BJP will fulfil the promises. Earlier, a senior SP leader had met Sanjay Nishad with the request to ally with the Samajwadi Party for the assembly election.
Newly elected Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) chief Jayant Chaudhary has made it clear that his party will contest the assembly election in alliance with the SP to send a message to its support base, the Jat community settled in western UP. RLD has also announced its support to SP candidates in the zila panchayat chairpersons’ election likely to be held in June-end or early July.
The Mahan Dal that is said to be popular among Maurya, Kushwaha and Saini caste voters has announced its support for the SP in the assembly elections.
The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) led by Asaduddin Owaisi and Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) chief Om Prakash Rajbhar have announced the launch of Bhagidari Sankalp Morcha (BSM) to form an alliance of smaller political parties for the 2022 assembly election. The Morcha had invited the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Bhim Army to join the pre-poll alliance. The Jan Adhikar Party led by Babu Singh Kushwaha, Rashtriya Uday Party president Babu Rampal, Rashtriya Upekshit Samaj Party chief Premchanda Prajapati and Janata Kranti Party president Anil Singh Chauhan have given their consent to join the alliance, he said. These parties have some influence over backward and Dalit communities in various regions of state.
The leaders of the SP, BSP and Congress are holding regular talks with BSM to sew up an alliance for the assembly elections. Rajbhar said the announcement of an alliance with other political parties would be made at the appropriate time.
Political analyst SK Srivastava said the BJP won the 2017 assembly elections with the support of the non-Yadav backward castes, non-Jatav Dalits, as well as the upper caste Brahmins and Rajputs.
The BJP leaders were now working to retain the support of these caste groups by wooing their leaders, he said.
Professor SK Dwivedi, former head of the political science department at Lucknow University, said major political parties could not ignore the role of smaller parties in garnering votes.
