A renewed OBC outreach in Uttar Pradesh
In Uttar Pradesh, political parties are focused on mobilising the Other Backward Classes (OBCs), which are estimated to comprise more than 40% of the State's population and consist of about 48 caste segments. This move comes against the backdrop of the Centre's announcement that caste enumeration will be part of the Census in 2027.
On June 14, the Congress began a month-long outreach campaign called Bhagidari Nyay Sammelan, with the aim of reaching out to the OBCs. The party has started holding conferences across the State to raise awareness about the declining employment opportunities for OBCs. It is also organising village-level 'chaupal' campaigns to sensitise people on the importance of a caste census and an economic survey. It plans to hold district-level marches on the need to increase the reservation cap beyond 50%. Congress leaders have said that they will raise caste-centric issues of various OBC segments, such as the Kurmis, Noniyas, Binds, Mauryas, Kushwahas, Rajbhars, Pals, Nishads, Nais, Mallahs, and Prajapatis. The party is confident of its OBC-centric approach in U.P. since Rahul Gandhi's recurrent pitch for a caste census during the party's campaign to the 2024 Lok Sabha elections was moderately successful.
Similarly, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has started organising OBC cadre camps in various Assembly constituencies across the State in a bid to attract the OBCs, especially groups that are extremely backward and which used to vote for the party along with Dalits in the 1990s and 2000s. The party is keen to remind OBC voters about the welfare measures launched for the segment by previous BSP governments under Mayawati. The reports of these cadre camps will be analysed at the party's State headquarters.
The focus on OBCs by the BSP, considered to be a Dalit-centric party, is evident from the party's choices for leadership: State president Vishwanath Pal, for instance, belongs to the Gadariya (OBC) community. In 1995 and 1997, Bhagwat Pal and Dayaram Pal, two OBC leaders, were at the helm of the party in the State and played a significant role in helping the BSP make inroads within OBC groups and dent the Mandal formula of the Samajwadi Party (SP).
The BSP today is a shell of its past. The party won just one seat in the 2022 Assembly polls and secured a vote share of just 12.8%. Given its downfall, it is keen to occupy the Opposition space through its OBC outreach and prevent the SP from making the State a bi-polar political battlefield.
The main rivals on the U.P. political chessboard — the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the SP — are also making attempts to garner the support of these social segments. SP president Akhilesh Yadav recently held meetings in Lucknow with social and political organisations of the Noniya and Rajbhar OBC groups. He promised them a slew of progressive measures if elected to power in the 2027 Assembly polls. Mr. Yadav also promised to build a statue of Maharaja Suheldev, considered an icon by the Rajbhar community, along the Gomti river in Lucknow. The SP has constantly emphasised that it is the party's PDA (Pichhda, Dalits and Alpsankhyak — meaning, backward castes, Dalits, and minority communities, respectively) plank and demand for a caste census that has pushed the BJP government to include caste enumeration in the 2027 Census.
The BJP, which has been saying that its decision to include caste enumeration at the national level shows the party's push for social justice and upliftment of the OBCs, has been giving a lion's share of its organisational posts to OBC leaders. In its district president list, announced recently, the BJP had 25 OBC presidents. Of them, five are Kurmis, two are Lodhs, two are Mauryas, and one each is from the Yadav, Kushwaha, Rajbhar, Pal, Saini, Kashyap and Vaishya communities. The Kurmis are numerically significant among the OBCs; they constitute roughly 4% of the State's population.
Last week, former minister and a prominent OBC face, Swami Prasad Maurya, launched a political front called Lok Morcha. This comprises nine small parties, led mostly by OBC leaders. The parties have coined the slogan, 'Jiski jitni sankha bhari, uski utni hissedari' (representation according to population), which is an old cry of OBC-centred parties. Evidently, no party is leaving any stone unturned to woo the OBCs.
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