Two recent developments in Uttar Pradesh — the pact between the BJP and the Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP), and former Samajwadi Party (SP) MLA Dara Singh Chauhan joining the BJP — appear to have been sparked by the ruling party’s electoral losses in the eastern region of the State.
Uttar Pradesh sends 80 MPs to the Lok Sabha and an internal scrutiny revealed weakness in the six eastern U.P. seats of Basti, Ghazipur, Ghosi, Jaunpur, Ballia, and Azamgarh.
The SBSP, led by Om Prakash Rajbhar, is a sub-regional party with appeal among the Rajbhars, and Other Backward Classes (OBCs) caste group in the region. .
BJP leaders told The Hindu that talks were going on for the past few weeks for the tie-up in view of the political situation in the State and region. “Discussions were definitely held at the level of central leadership, which decides with whom the party should ally,” said Danish Azad Ansari, U.P.’s Minister of State for Minority Welfare, Muslim Waqf, and Haj.
The decision to ally with the SBSP clearly seems to be driven by the results of the last Assembly and Lok Sabha polls, where the Azamgarh and Varanasi administrative division in Purvanchal proved to be a battleground for the BJP with a significant section of OBCs and Dalits voting for the opposition alliance.
“Any alliance is done with an eye on the current politics, but we are more focused on taking our Prime Minister Modiji and CM Yogiji’s development vision to the downtrodden,” added Mr. Ansari.
Support base
Mr. Chauhan, a former U.P. Minister, has a good support base in Ghosi, a Lok Sabha seat that the BJP lost in 2019 by over one lakh votes. In the 2022 State Assembly poll, of the 30 Assembly seats falling under these six Purvanchal parliamentary segments, the BJP won only five as against the 23 seats bagged by the SP-SBSP alliance.
The reason for the Opposition success was attributed to the consolidation of the sizeable backward community votes.
The SP is confident of repeating its success in 2024 as the Backwards, Dalits and marginalised communities are now “more alienated” from the BJP than they were in 2019.
“Why should we only count these six seats. Even in adjoining Chandauli the BJP won by less than 15,000 votes in 2019; it won Machhalishahar Assembly seat by only few hundred votes. Political parties may be lured by the BJP, but not voters from Backward and Dalit communities,” asserted Ameeque Jamei, the SP’s national spokesperson.
