Lok Sabha Elections / Politics heats up for this caste in UP - Now politics on OBC for Lok Sabha elections

Lok Sabha Elections: These days the trend of OBC politics is going on in the country. This is the biggest agenda of the India alliance. RJD, JDU and Samajwadi Party have been raising this issue from the beginning, but now Rahul Gandhi has become its biggest advocate. These days he is promising to conduct cast census from every platform. The slogans of the greater the number, the greater the share are being raised again. India alliance has made it the biggest weapon against BJP for the next Lok Sabha elections. The constituent parties of the alliance are trying to break the social engineering of BJP on this pretext.

In UP, voters from backward communities are associated with different parties and leaders. Voters of Yadav, Rajbhar and Nishad communities have held the flags of their choice. Statistics show that after Yadav, Kurmi voters are the most influential. Their population in UP is said to be around six percent.

In the last Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in UP, Kurmi voters did not support any single party. BJP got a large part of this community. Samajwadi Party and Congress also got Kurmi votes on many seats. Now the real challenge is the Lok Sabha elections. To correct its social equation, BJP has formed an alliance with Apna Dal. For Kurmi votes, Akhilesh Yadav has made electoral coordination with Apna Dal Kamerawadi Party.

Likes and dislikes of Kurmi society keep changing

Kurmi votes have never been with any one party. The likes and dislikes of this society change in every election. In the last assembly elections, 13 Kurmi MLAs of Samajwadi Party were elected, whereas in the elections held five years ago, the party had only two Kurmi MLAs. Election results show that Samajwadi Party also got a lot of votes from this community. This signal is an alarm bell for BJP, whereas in UP BJP has been claiming unity of non-Yadav backward people. In the last assembly elections, 22 Kurmi had become MLAs of BJP. 24 MLAs from this community were elected in 2017, but in the 2022 UP elections, the number of BJP's Kurmi MLAs reduced to 22.

Apna Dal has been an ally of BJP in UP since the 2014 general elections. To woo Kurmi voters, Amit Shah formed an alliance with Anupriya Patel. In the last assembly elections, 12 leaders of Apna Dal won and became MLAs. Of these, 5 belong to Kurmi caste. Apna Dal has been in action since the month of August. The party has two Lok Sabha MPs. The next challenge is the Lok Sabha elections.

Challenge in front of Anupriya Patel

The second challenge before Anupriya Patel, a minister in the Modi government, is her own sister Pallavi Patel, who is with Akhilesh Yadav. Pallavi, along with her mother, has formed her own party, Kamerawadi Party. He surprised everyone by defeating Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya in the last assembly elections. Akhilesh Yadav has made preparations to garner Kurmi votes by putting Pallavi forward. The party also has its own big leaders from this society. There is talk of some of Ram Prasad Chaudhary, Lalji Verma, Narendra Verma and Naresh Uttam Patel contesting the Lok Sabha elections.

Congress has also made all efforts for Kurmi voters. The party does not have any big leader of its own from this community, hence leaders are being plucked from other parties. First Ravi Verma and now Pramod Patel have been included in Congress from Samajwadi Party. There used to be many big leaders of Kurmi community in BSP at one time. But some of them joined Samajwadi Party and many joined BJP.

Kurmi caste voters are very alert and cautious

Pankaj Chaudhary, Lok Sabha MP from Maharajganj, is a minister in the Modi government. Swatantra Dev Singh, former state president of BJP, is the Irrigation Minister in the Yogi government. The challenge before BJP is to retain Kurmi voters. At least one and a half dozen out of 80 seats in UP are dominated by the Kurmi caste. People of this community have been deciding victory and defeat in these Lok Sabha constituencies. Barabanki, Pilibhit, Lakhimpur Kheri, Varanasi, Chandauli, Pratapgarh, Bareilly, Mirzapur, Banda, Phulpur are such seats. Politically, voters of Kurmi caste are considered very alert and cautious.