Uttar Pradesh: BJP steps up OBC consolidation, inducts several Opposition leaders

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday inducted several backward caste leaders of the Samajwadi Party (SP), the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) into its fold at the ruling party’s Uttar Pradesh unit headquarters in Lucknow.

The move is aimed at consolidating the BJP’s hold on Other Backward Classes (OBCs) before the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The new entrants include nine leaders of the SP, five of the BSP, two of the Congress and one of the RLD.

The prominent opposition leaders who defected to the BJP included Shalini Yadav. She had contested the 2019 Lok Sabha election on the SP ticket from Varanasi against Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The others included former Rajya Sabha MP and RLD leader Rajpal Saini. Among the Samajwadi Party leaders who joined the BJP are former ministers Sahib Singh Saini and Jagdish Sonkar, former Hardoi MP Anshul Verma, former MLAs Sushma Patel and Gulab Saroj. Bahujan Samaj Party leader Ganga Singh Kushwaha was also inducted into the BJP.

The defection of the SP, BSP and RLD leaders to the BJP is seen as a major jolt to opposition parties which were working on the OBC-Muslim-Dalit formula to defeat the BJP in the Lok Sabha election.

Earlier, Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party (SBSP) chief Om Prakash Rajbhar, a prominent backward leader in east U.P, returned to the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) after breaking his alliance with the SP.

Another influential OBC leader from east U.P. Dara Singh Chauhan had also rejoined the BJP last week.

To counter the SP- RLD alliance in west U.P, the induction of influential Saini community leaders Rajpal Saini and Sahib Singh Saini from Muzaffarnagar and Saharanpur, respectively comes at a time when the BJP is wooing the Saini, Sakya, Kushwaha and Maurya community leaders to strengthen its hold over the non-Yadav OBCs.

Welcoming the opposition leaders, U.P. BJP president Bhupendra Singh Choudhary said the party aims to win all the 80 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh.

“Party leaders and cadres have to work hard to make the lotus bloom in each Lok Sabha constituency,” he said.

The opposition leaders joined the BJP as they were impressed with the central government’s schemes dedicated to the welfare of the poor, the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, development schemes launched by chief minister Yogi Adityanath and improvement in the law and order situation, Chaudhary added.

Deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya said the opposition’s bid to challenge the BJP by changing the name of the UPA (United Progressive Alliance) to a new political coalition (Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance or INDIA) will not work in the Lok Sabha election. The BJP will again form government at the Centre under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he said.

Deputy chief minister Brajesh Pathak said senior opposition leaders joining the BJP clearly indicates the party will win all 80 seats in UP in the 2024 Lok Sabha election.

“The opposition plan to form a new alliance to stop BJP will fail as Narendra Modi will become the Prime Minister for the third time and the NDA government will come to power at the Centre,” he said.