UP polls: Why Swami and friends exited BJP

Here onwards, UP polls could crystallise around two competing narratives - BJP and SP offering larger stakes to the non-aligned backward communities

Just as the second wave of Covid-19 had started to recede in June 2021, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) dispatched its top party general secretary, in-charge of organisation, BL Santhosh, to Uttar Pradesh to assess and gauge the mood of the cadres. Santhosh, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) nominated pracharak on deputation to the BJP camped in Lucknow for three days to prepare a report card on the Yogi Adityanath government.

In a meeting with top state functionaries also attended by Chief Minister Adityanath, Swami Prasad Maurya was asked to weigh in with his thoughts on the current political scenario in the state. Swami Prasad Maurya, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) turncoat who had joined the BJP ahead of the 2017 Assembly polls, was a tad reluctant to speak. After repeated requests, Swami Prasad Maurya unequivocally laid bare his assessment of the ground situation, so much so that a senior party leader in the meeting had to intervene to ask Maurya to cut short his speech.

Hence, Swami Prasad Maurya's departure from the BJP ahead of the polls is not surprising to those who have their ears on the ground in UP's power politics. In August 2021, Swami Prasad Maurya's daughter, a BJP Lok Sabha MP from Badayun, Sanghamitra Maurya, spoke in support of the caste census, the BJP's Achilles Heels in the caste conundrum of heartland politics.

Also Read | Mass desertions 'force' BJP to revisit its electoral strategy in Uttar Pradesh

The possible hiccup in Swami Prasad Maurya's defection was possibly his daughter's political future as she won her election in 2019, defeating Mulayam Singh Yadav's nephew Dharmendra Yadav. That issue perhaps would have been resolved before Maurya decided to cross over.

In terms of the socio-political churn, the development is symptomatic of how numerically small caste groups have leveraged their numbers to seek a larger share in the power pie.

Koeris, Kushwahas, Mauryas, Sainis and Shakyas all belong to the same sub-castes within the OBCs who have traditionally been associated with agriculture and market-gardening. Spread thin over north India, they, like other smaller backward blocks, have patiently waited for their turn in the natural progression and decentralisation of power in the Mandal hierarchy.

Post-1989, these communities have experimented with many champions of social justice. Mulayam Singh Yadav was once the undisputed leader and torchbearer of the backward classes. The BSP then systematically weaned away from the SP a section, especially the MBCs (Most Backward Classes). Swami Prasad Maurya became a minister for the first time in the 1997 Mayawati government. Babu Singh Kushwaha remained a close confidante of the BSP chief till his name got embroiled in a corruption case.

Also Read | UP polls: Another BJP MLA to go with Maurya, despite family drama

But unlike the Kurmis and Rajbhars of eastern UP, mobilised by caste leaders like Sone Lal Patel and Om Prakash Rajbhar, similar experiments within the Mauryas and Kushwahas of UP have not taken root. Keshav Deo Maurya's Mahan Dal has been in existence for nearly a decade now without having made as much of an impression on the ground.

With the appointment of its Phulpur MP Keshav Prasad Maurya as UP state president in 2016, the BJP sought to give a strong message to the community in particular, and MBCs in general, that it was willing not just to accommodate their interests but could go a step further in the devolution of power from haves to have-nots.

The message got well absorbed in the political discourse in the run-up to the 2017 elections when other MBC leaders like Swami Prasad Maurya and Dara Singh Chauhan quit the BSP and joined the BJP. The result was that Keshav Prasad Maurya became the deputy chief minister in the Adityanath government, and Om Prakash Rajbhar, Swami Prasad Maurya and Dara Chauhan were sworn in as cabinet ministers.

Also Read | After OBC leaders, key 'Gujjar' leader quits BJP, joins RLD

But every election, communities and individual leaders make their assessments and choice for the next five years.

In the run-up to the 2022 elections, smaller caste groups like Mauryas, Rajbhars, Chauhans - both at the level of party and individuals - are driving a hard bargain with key stakeholders. Some may call it un-abashed political opportunism. But for numerically small communities, nimble tactical manoeuvres could be the only way to survive a shiver of sharks and make the best of it.

The Samajwadi Party (SP) has been forced to concede more to the non-Yadav OBCs. The BJP will have to make a matching or a better offer.

The UP elections from here onwards may crystallise around two competing narratives. The BJP and SP will offer larger stakes to the non-aligned backward communities.

The second week of the new year was marked by two noticeable defections in poll-bound UP—one from the east and the second from its western frontiers.

Imran Masood of the Congress joined the SP. He has influence in pockets of western UP. Masood's migration would have also sent a message to the minorities at large but was underplayed by the SP, so much so that Imran announced his own joining at a press conference at his Ambala Road residence in Saharanpur.

On the other hand, the SP amplified Swami Prasad Maurya's defection, with party chief Akhilesh Yadav tweeting a picture with the latest entrant to the party.

(The author is a journalist)

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.

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