It is a very old saying that the road to Delhi’s power goes through Lucknow. But the continuous victory of BJP since 2014 has proved that it is difficult to capture the power of the state and the center without keeping the backward and very backward vote bank of UP.
The BJP has made preparations to make a hat-trick of victory in the Lok Sabha elections 2024 under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi by harnessing the backward and extremely backward vote bank of the state. In the meeting of the National Working Committee of the party held in Delhi on January 16-17, a message was given to help the backward people in the Lok Sabha elections by getting Deputy Chief Minister from UP, Keshav Prasad Maurya, to approve the political proposal.
In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, for the first time, the BJP had started working on a strategy to help the non-Yadav backward and extremely backward people of the state. This experiment was successful. The BJP won 73 out of 80 seats and formed the government with absolute majority for the first time under the leadership of PM Modi.
Since then, the politics of the BJP in the state revolves around the backward classes. The party increased the participation of backward people from power to organization. Keshav Prasad Maurya was made the state president of BJP in 2016. Backed by the backward vote bank, the party formed the government in UP in 2017 with a record number of seats.
Even in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, despite the SP-BSP alliance, the BJP was able to win 64 out of 80 seats because of its backward vote bank. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, more than two dozen backward class MPs were elected on BJP tickets.
There are 18 ministers from backward classes in the 52-member cabinet of the Yogi government. In the 2022 assembly elections, the party fielded backward class candidates on 137 seats. Out of these 89 won the elections. Leaders of Jat, Shakya, Rajbhar, Yadav, Kurmi, Nishad, Gurjar community have been sent to Rajya Sabha among the major backward castes from UP.
Despite losing, Keshav’s stature as the face of the backward class increased
Along with the meeting of the National Executive, the BJP has announced the Lok Sabha elections. In such a situation, in order to maintain the winning streak in UP, the party has adopted the strategy of keeping the backward classes simple. Keshav Prasad Maurya is considered the face of the party among the backward classes in the state.
Despite the defeat in the assembly elections, the party made Keshav the deputy chief minister. After this, the Leader in the Legislative Council increased his stature by handing over the responsibility of the House. Now even after getting the political resolution approved by Keshav in the National Executive meeting, the party has tried to give the message to UP that backward classes are at the center of the party.
That’s why backward class in focus
Experts believe that due to the High Court’s ban on OBC reservation in civic elections in UP, there is resentment among backward and extremely backward classes. The government has tried to control the damage by constituting a commission for the triple test and announcing the elections only on its recommendation.
Despite this, by giving Keshav a chance to approve the political proposal in the National Working Committee, an attempt has been made to remove its commitment towards the backward and their displeasure.
Bhupendra and Swatantra Dev were also given attention under the strategy
Party by making Bhupendra Chaudhary the state president Tried to help the Jat community in Western UP. On the other hand, Water Power Minister Swatantradev Singh was included in the National Working Committee to convey the message to the Kurmi vote bank. Experts believe that the party not only wants to make a hat-trick of the Modi government in 2024 by helping the backward classes, but also wants to complete Mission 75 by securing more than 50 percent votes.