With the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and opposition Samajwadi Party intensifying efforts to rope in new allies ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the small political parties – mostly caste-specific with limited area of influence – have become hard bargainers.
For the small parties the poll season is a big opportunity to exploit the sense of insecurity of the big political parties. The BJP and SP are forging new alliances and welcoming turncoats even though many of them will not bring any benefit. The BJP, despite its overwhelming electoral dominance in Uttar Pradesh, is desperate to further consolidate its position by wooing smaller parties.
A section of the BJP is not happy with the party decision to take back former SP MLA Dara Singh Chauhan into the party fold and the return of Om Prakash Rajbhar of Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party to National Democratic Alliance. The BJP has Apna Dal (Sonelal) and NISHAD Party as its allies but wants to win over other parties.
The SP, meanwhile, is said to be trying to bring back estranged allies like Mahan Dal and Janwadi Party. The SP already has the rival Apna Dal faction led by Krishna Patel as an ally. Its biggest ally is the Rashtriya Lok Dal that wields influence in western UP.
The small parties draw their strength from the fact that they represent various caste and sub-caste groups. The bigger parties feel that by bringing these parties into their folds, they will get their caste votes. The Apna Dal, for instance, is a Kurmi-based party that has made an influence in the Kurmi community which happens to be the second largest social group in the Other Backward Classes category.
While Apna Dal founder Sonelal Patel could never win an election himself, his daughter Anupriya Patel, now a Union minister of state, has led the party to greater success. The Apna Dal (S) contested two seats and won both in 2014 and then repeated the feat in 2019. It now has 12 members in the UP Assembly. The BJP has benefited from Kurmi votes because of Apna Dal.
The NISHAD party, which draws its strength from the boatmen community, is also a BJP ally in Uttar Pradesh. Its president, Sanjay Nishad, is a minister in the Yogi Adityanath government and his son Parveen Nishad is a Member of Parliament while his younger son Sarvan Nishad is an MLA. Sanjay Nishad has not won an election himself but claims that he wields influence on 27 Lok Sabha seats in UP.
There are other smaller parties that have not proved their electoral presence in the state but are being sought after by bigger parties. The Mahan Dal, which had contested the 2022 assembly polls in alliance with the SP, has now announced unconditional support to the Bahujan Samaj Party. It has also started its campaign in Farrukhabad, Kasganj, Shahjahanpur and Budaun areas.
Mahan Dal chief Keshav Dev Maurya said, “SP president Akhilesh Yadav ignored me in the alliance. I walked out of the alliance after the assembly elections. As I am committed to defeat the BJP, our party has decided to support BSP in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. My vote bank of Shakya, Saini, Kushwaha and Maurya communities had been supporting BSP till 2007.”
The Janwadi Socialist Party and Apna Dal (Kamerawadi) were both part of an alliance the SP had forged in 2022. Both parties failed to win any seats in the 2022 UP assembly polls. The former draws strength from the Bind and Kashyap communities that have sizeable numbers in over a dozen districts of eastern UP.
The Apna Dal (Kamerawadi) is a splinter group of the Apna Dal founded by Kurmi leader Sonelal Patel. It is led by Krishna Patel, widow of Dr Sonelal Patel. Patel’s daughter Pallavi Patel contested the 2022 assembly election on SP ticket and won in Sirathu, defeating Keshav Prasad Maurya with a margin of 7,000 votes.