Synopsis
The BJP’s success in the recent Uttar Pradesh assembly bypolls can be attributed to its successful efforts in regaining support from OBC and SC voters. The party employed targeted strategies, including fielding candidates popular among these communities, to secure victories in key constituencies.
PTINew Delhi: The BJP‘s performance in the Uttar Pradesh assembly bypolls shows that the party succeeded in bringing back the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) and Scheduled Caste (SC) voters into its fold, say analysts.
While the BJP bagged six seats out of the nine for which bypolls were held in UP, its ally Rashtriya Lok Dal won one seat. These seats, in different parts of the state, required different political strategies owing to varied caste combinations. So, it was a tough task for the BJP to work out a separate strategy for each assembly seat. Chief minister Yogi Adiyanath, who spearheaded the BJP’s election management, chose to field party candidates from Katehari and Majhawan seats, which had gone to the ally Nishad Party as part of the seat-sharing in 2022 assembly polls. The BJP won both seats, bagging Katehari after three decades. Besides, it retained Phulpur after a close contest.
BJP also increased its vote share in Samajwadi Party‘s pocket borough of Karahal-vacated by SP chief Akhilesh Yadav after he won the Lok Sabha election from Kannauj-where it polled 89,597 votes. Following the bypolls, the NDA has four more MLAs from the OBC category.
BJP’s success in snatching Katehari seat from the SP would not have been possible without the support of OBC and SC voters. The party fielded Dharamraj Nishad, a former BSP leader who is a popular face among the local SC voters. He was elected to the state assembly thrice in the past.
Apart from the SC voters, this constituency has a considerable presence of Brahmin voters also. The SP had fielded Shobhawati Verma, who is wife of Ambedkar Nagar MP Lalji Verma. This seat was vacated by Lalji Verma after his victory in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls from Ambedkar Nagar. Verma was elected to the state assembly from Katehari in 2017 and 2022 assembly polls. The Katehari seat offered fresh challenges for the BJP in view of Verma’s political grip over this seat.
The party worked out a different strategy for the Karhal seat which is referred to as a stronghold of Akhilesh Yadav. The party selected a local Yadav face Anujesh Yadav to improve its performance. But BJP gave a tough fight to the SP here and reduced the margin of SP’s victory compared to the 2022 polls. SP candidate Tej Pratap Yadav won this seat by a margin of only 14, 725 votes.
Following the debacle that the BJP faced in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the course correction to restore the required balance between the party organisation and the government also enabled the BJP to corner its main political opponent, the SP, in the assembly bypolls, said analysts. Apart from deploying his ministers across the nine assembly seats, Adityanath interacted with the party cadres at the ground level. Riding on his slogan ‘Katoge to Batoge’, perceived as a call to Hindus to stay united, he continued to attack the SP in his own way, turning the bypolls into a direct contest between him and the SP chief.
