With the objective of asserting its distinct political identity, Samajwadi Party would celebrate the birth anniversary of Sardar Patel on Thursday. 

Since 2014, after Narendra Modi took over as the Prime Minister in May, the day has been celebrated as `National Unity Day. The Yogi Adityanath government has already announced a grand programme for celebrating Sardar Patel’s birth anniversary.

“Samajwadi Party wants to prevent the Bharatiya Janata Party from appropriating the legacy of Patel. They have already made concerted attempt to appropriate the legacy of Mahatma Gandhi by organising a special 36-hour-long, uninterrupted special session of UP Legislature on October 2. So, it is time for us to pull up socks and fight the political battle,” said a senior SP leader. 

Sardar Patel is an icon of Kurmi community, a dominant OBCs community in UP. Apna Dal (Sonelal), a political outfit of Kurmis claiming the legacy of Sardar Patel, is an ally of the ruling BJP.

The BJP’s strategy of targeting the non-Yadav OBCs in the last three elections — 2014 Lok Sabha, 2017 UP Assembly and 2019 Lok Sabha polls — has paid rich dividends and made significant dent in the vote bank of the two caste-based political parties — Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party.

SP leaders admit that though the BJP government in UP is headed and dominated by upper castes, it is the largest party giving representation to non-Yadav OBCs both in state Assembly and in Lok Sabha constituencies of UP. 

Sources said that the SP would make a determined bid to bring back the non-Yadav OBCs, particularly the Kurmis, into its fold.  The agenda of the proposed state-wide tour by party chief Akhilesh Yadav would be on consolidation of party support base among all OBCs social groups.