OBC leaders' defection big worry for Samajwadi Party ahead of Lok Sabha elections 2024

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav has a big worry with its OBC stakeholders, with half a dozen leaders from these communities having already defected to BJP in the past few months.

In the run-up to the polls, Yadav has been stressing the importance of, what the party has termed the 'PDA', or 'Pichchda, Dalit, Alpsankhyak' - backward, Dalit, and minority unity.

Despite the party throwing its weight behind these communities, about half-a-dozen of the prominent OBC leaders of the state have joined the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in recent times.

Prominent OBC leader Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) President Om Prakash Rajbhar, former minister Dara Singh Chauhan, former Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) MP Rajpal Saini, former minister Sahab Singh Saini, and former MLA Sushma Patel are some of the prominent leaders who have defected to the BJP.

In addition to them, Shalini Yadav, who was the Samajwadi Party's candidate in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections against Prime Minister Narendra Modi from Varanasi, too has joined the BJP.

The Samajwadi Party, however, has exuded confidence in its formidability despite the little migration.

"There is no opportunity in BJP. The BJP has definitely broken some political opportunists using the greed of power and pressure, but the public understands everything," SP chief spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary told PTI on Sunday.

A political expert said the breaking away of several OBS leaders could be due to their feeling there was no "proper place" in the SP alliance, complemented by an opportunity in the incumbent BJP.

On the other hand, Dara Singh Chauhan told PTI, "There are many reasons for leaving Samajwadi Party. OBCs have faith in the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah. Modi-Shah is giving respect to OBCs."

Chauhan, who was the Forest Minister in the first Yogi Adityanath government from 2017-2002, was elected MLA in 2022 on the Samajwadi Party symbol from the Ghosi Assembly seat in Mau district. He resigned from the assembly membership before joining the BJP.

Former MP Rajpal Saini said he became disaffected from the SP after he was bypassed for a ticket in the bypolls.

"I have been an MP, a Minister, an MLA and was defeated by only a few votes in the 2022 assembly elections from Khatauli (Muzaffarnagar) but I was not given a ticket in the by-election," he said.

"I was neglected in the municipal elections, so I took this step because the future belongs to the BJP," he said.

Saini also argued that the community was not getting space in the alliance in proportion to its size and clout, and cited BSP founder Kanshiram's slogan 'Jiski jitni Sankhya Bhari, Uski Utni Hissedari', which he said wasn't turning out to be the case.

Meanwhile, the speculation about Mahan Dal, a party dominant in western Uttar Pradesh, joining the NDA has intensified.

Keshav Dev Maurya, president of the Mahan Dal, though refused the possibility of the alliance for the time being, said, 'Our struggle is for power and if we get a proper opportunity in BJP, we can form an alliance.' Out of 80 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh, more than 25 regions are represented by MPs from backward classes. OBC leaders claim that the population of OBCs in the state is up to 56 per cent.

However, a commission formed in the recent civic elections, after a survey, said in its report that 36.77 per cent of the backward class population resides across 762 municipal bodies of the state.

Apart from Yadavs, OBCs, including Kurmi, Shakya, Saini, Rajbhar, and Chauhan have also been considered a vote bank of SP. But now the BJP is running a campaign to bring the prominent leaders of these castes into their fold.