New Delhi:
BJP’s key moves: In a significant move seen as a counter move to the opposition’s attempt to paint the BJP as anti-OBC interests in the Indian heartland, the saffron party inducted Om Prakash Rajbhar, a senior leader from the community, into its camp on Sunday (July 16).
The Opposition has exploited a host of issues including the OBC census to corner the BJP government in the run-up to the 2024 general elections. The Congress has joined the chorus of several regional parties to push for a caste census as part of broader efforts to increase OBC reservation, however, the BJP appears to be taking the move in stride with Rajbhar now being part of the NDA months ahead of the crucial Lok Sabha elections next year.
While the Opposition seeks unity among various political parties with different ideologies and political stances on different issues, with the aim of ousting the Narendra Modi government from the Center in 2024, the BJP also seems to be playing its cards.
Rajbhar’s entry into NDA
The first example of the saffron party’s strategy can be seen in Maharashtra where NCP heavyweight Ajit Pawar created a vertical split in his party led by his uncle and veteran leader Sharad Pawar and joined the Maharashtra government. The other, and more recent, example was in Uttar Pradesh where Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party chief O P Rajbhar rejoined the NDA, leaving the opposition ranks.
Uttar Pradesh, which consists of 80 parliamentary constituencies, has been a BJP stronghold since 2014. Rajbhar, in the state, is among the leaders who wield influence among the sailor and fishermen communities, while the Apna Dal (Sunial) is already part of the NDA with Anupriya Patel as union minister. Her party is said to have support mostly among backward Karmas.
The Center has so far been silent on the demand to conduct a census of other backward classes.
A group of leaders representing smaller parties and mostly belonging to a certain backward caste or Dalit caste, most of them from the opposition, have gravitated to the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance in recent months, as the ruling party supports a wing in which it has at times looked weak.
BJP’s plans in Bihar
In politically charged Bihar, where the BJP aims to win all the Lok Sabha seats next year, despite the loss of its ally Nitish Kumar, who rejected the saffron party, he returned to Mahagathbandhan last year.
Kushwaha leader Upendra Kushwaha and former chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi, whose Manjhi community is Dalit, has left the RJD-JD(U)-Congress and Left alliance.
Manjhi has already extended his support to the NDA while Kushwaha also held a host of meetings with BJP leaders.
Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) chief Chirag Paswan, who has also expressed his desire to be part of the NDA, provided Pashupati Paras is not part of the coalition, has also been invited to attend the NDA meeting in Delhi on July 18. The BJP is making efforts to bring Chirag back into its camp.
However, the Samajwadi Party has managed to penetrate the dominant political force that has been established in Uttar Pradesh since Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s victory in 2014. Akhilesh Yadav has sided with the likes of Rajbhar and a rival faction of the Apna Dal in the 2022 Assembly elections.
Some OBC leaders from the BJP, including Dara Singh Chouhan, have defected to the SP to strengthen its outreach to the non-Yadavs back, and Chouhan’s decision to resign as MLA and potentially return to his former party is another setback for the disunited opposition in the crucial state.
The SP-RLD alliance in Western UP had some success in dividing the Jat votes in 2022. With speculation rife that the BJP is trying to woo Rashtriya Lok Dal leader Jayant Singh to join the NDA folds, it confirms the saffron party’s conviction to win all 80 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh. The BJP had won 62 seats in 2019 while its ally Apna Dal won two.
However, the Mahagathbandhan, which includes the RJD, Congress, JD(U) and Left parties, is a much stronger alliance in Bihar than in Uttar Pradesh.
Moreover, BJP leaders argue that by including leaders of small parties associated with various backward castes and Dalits in their side, they can present the NDA as an inclusive alliance that is more socially representative than their main rivals, the Lalu Prasad Yadav-led RJD and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar-led JD(U).
Meanwhile, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar held a meeting with all opposition leaders at his residence in Patna on June 23. The meeting was held to bring all parties on one platform against the BJP and formulate a strategy to counter the BJP. Leaders of more than 15 political parties participated.
In response, the BJP is doing its best to return to power for the third time in a row in the 2024 elections which promises to see a heated election campaign.
(with PTI inputs)
Read also | OP Rajbhar, a former ally of Akhilesh Yadav, rejoins the BJP-led NDA
Read also | ‘If Sonia, Nitish, Mayawati and Akhilesh come together…’: Rajbhar’s message before the opposition meeting
