The Samajwadi Party, aspiring to win all 80 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh, is rattled by the breakneck speed of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in firming up its alliance with the non-Yadav Other Backward Classes political parties and inducting the OBC leaders into the party to strengthen its grip in eastern Uttar Pradesh.
The BJP, already having an alliance with Apna Dal (Sonelal) and NISHAD Party, finalised alliance with the Om Prakash Rajbhar led Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party (SBSP) to reverse the losses in 2022 UP assembly elections and re-establish its electoral dominance in the region.
Moreover, prominent non-Yadav OBC leader and SP MLA Dara Singh Chauhan resigned from the membership of the assembly and joined the BJP.
“The BJP is innovative and breaking new ground almost every day while the SP leadership is busy in attending opposition conclaves in Patna and Bengaluru. We are a regional party and instead of pursuing national ambitions, it would be better for us to concentrate on UP only,” said a SP leader.
He added that the party will have to take immediate measures to retain the support base in eastern UP.
Much to the discomfiture of the SP, the BJP is likely to go for cabinet expansion and induct new entrants in National Democratic Alliance in the Yogi Adityanath government. SBSP chief Om Prakash Rajbhar and former SP MLA Dara Singh Chauhan are most likely to be inducted into the Yogi 2.0 cabinet in August. Chauhan has previously served as a cabinet minister in the Yogi Adityanath-led government from 2017 to 2022.
BJP state president Bhupendra Singh Chaudhary met Rajbhar at his residence on Wednesday (July 19). He then went to Delhi on Thursday to discuss the cabinet expansion and appointments of district BJP presidents.
Besides the induction of OBC leaders in the party, and likely in the cabinet, the BJP has stepped up its attention on eastern UP. On July 7, Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged off Vande Bharat Express trains from Gorakhpur railway station. He also addressed the closing ceremony of the centenary celebrations of the Gita Press in the city. The same day, he also inaugurated and laid the foundation stones of a raft of developmental projects worth over Rs 12,100 crore in Varanasi, and interacted with BJP cadres in both places.
On July 2, when Apna Dal (S) celebrated the birth anniversary of its founder and late Kurmi leader Dr Sonelal Patel, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, BJP state president Bhupendra Singh Chaudhary and over a dozen state cabinet ministers were present on stage in Lucknow.
For the BJP, as it begins preparations for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the first area of focus is eastern UP where it had suffered setbacks in the 2019 Lok Sabha and 2022 UP assembly elections.
In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, out of 26 Lok Sabha seats in eastern UP, the BJP had won 24, while its ally Apna Dal (S) had won one, leaving only Azamgarh to the SP. But in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, when the Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party came together, the BJP could win only 17 seats, and its ally Apna Dal (S) won two seats. The BSP won six seats in eastern UP while the SP could bag only one seat – Azamgarh.
The BJP again suffered a setback in the 2022 UP assembly elections against the alliance led by the SP with smaller OBC parties. While Rajbhar’s SBSP had struck an alliance with the SP, other OBC leaders like Dara Singh Chauhan and Swami Prasad Maurya had joined the SP. Although the BJP-led alliance still won a majority in the region with 79 seats, its tally came down to 68, while the SP won a respectable 43 seats, with its alliance winning 49 seats in the region.