BJP open to alliances with more smaller parties: Pradhan
Having sealed pacts for the 2022 Uttar Pradesh (UP) assembly election, with the OBCbased Apna Dal and Nishad party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is open to tie-ups with other smaller parties, the BJP’s UP election in-charge Dharmendra Pradhan said on Friday.
He didn’t make it clear as to which other “smaller parties” the BJP was still wooing, but dropped enough hints that efforts were on to ink more pacts to ensure what he described as “social inclusiveness”.
“Our state leadership is in touch with many (smaller parties) and as we proceed, we will let you know,” said Pradhan, the Union education minister.
In the 2017 UP assembly polls, the BJP had fielded 150 mostly non-Yadav OBCs and this time, too, the party leaders admit that the template is going to be the same. Political experts said that both the BJP and the SP were in a race to have a substantial chunk of the OBC pie.
“At the moment it does appear that the two parties leading the race to woo OBCs are the BJP and the SP because these are the two political players witnessing the maximum footfalls of leaders from other parties,” said Irshad Ilmi, a veteran journalist and political observer.
While the Nishad party is now officially with the BJP, the SP, too, has stepped up efforts to win over the riverine community that comprises fishermen and boatmen. In July, the SP chief had unveiled a statue of Nishad community leader Manohar Lal in Sarosi village of Unnao. The SP leaders have also said that they would put up a statue of former bandit-turned- politician the late Phoolan Devi, belonging to the Mallah (Nishad) community. The SP also got Bhojpuri actor Kajal Nishad to join the party in August.
The entry of Bihar’s Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP), Jaalvanshi Morcha led by Gyanendra Nishad and the Eklavya Sena run by Phoolan Devi’s husband Umed Singh has further queered the pitch.
It is in this backdrop that Pradhan’s statement about the BJP being open to more smaller parties assumes significance. The statement made during the announcement of a pre-poll pact with Nishad party coincided with two former Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) heavyweights Lalji Verma and Ram Achal Rajbhar, both OBC leaders, meeting former chief minister and SP chief Akhilesh Yadav.
Verma and Ramachal Rajbhar, people familiar with the issue said, may join the SP in October. Earlier this month, first-time BJP MLA from Sitapur Rakesh Rathore too had similarly met Akhilesh Yadav, indicating that like the BJP, the SP too was trying to weave a rainbow coalition of OBCs, easily the dominant political caste group in UP. Rathore, too, is an OBC leader. The SP already has the support of the Mahan Dal that claims to have influence among Shakya, Saini, Maurya and Kushwaha communities, as well as the Janwadi Socialist Party of Sanjay Singh Chauhan which largely comprises members of the Bind and Kashyap communities. Asked if the BJP was also in touch with former ally Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP), which has the support of the Rajbhars, an OBC group that is strategically spread over several assembly segments of east UP, a BJP leader said that the party would make attempts to “take everyone along.”
Since his party fell out with the BJP after the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, SBSP chief Om Prakash Rajbhar has set up the Bhagidari Sankalp Morcha, an alliance of eight small parties. These parties are the SBSP, Jan Adhikar Party, Apna Dal (K), Bhartiya Vanchit Samaj Party, Bhartiya Manav Samaj Party, Janata Kranti Party (R), Rashtriya Bhagidari Party (P) and Rashtra Uday Party. They comprises members of various OBC groups like Bind, Gadariya, Kumhar, Dhivar, Kashyap, Patels and have been demanding adequate ‘hissedari’ (representation) in government.
In August, OP Rajbhar’s meeting with UP BJP chief Swatantra Dev had triggered a buzz about the former ally returning to the BJP fold. The meeting was arranged by UP BJP vice president Daya Shankar Singh who had claimed that both the parties would contest the 2022 UP polls together. Ever since, Om Prakash Rajbhar has gone back to attacking the BJP but the ruling party strategists indicated that “backchannel talks were on.”
Another BJP leader said: “I think by the time elections draw closer, we would have more OBCs than anyone else. But it’s not just about OBCs. It’s just that no other party can offer the people bouquet of all-round development, charismatic global leadership and social inclusiveness and that’s where we prevail.”
IN JULY, THE SP CHIEF HAD UNVEILED A STATUE OF NISHAD COMMUNITY LEADER MANOHAR LAL IN SAROSI VILLAGE OF UNNAO