New Delhi: After denigrating the community in successive political campaigns to woo other backward classes, the BJP is now reaching out to the Yadav family in Uttar Pradesh in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections in the hope of achieving greater Hindu unification. The saffron party is using Hindutva propaganda over threats to the OBC reserve and the ruling dynasty to moderate its anti-Yadav rhetoric.
The BJP’s softened stance towards the Yadavs, who are estimated to make up 9-10% of the state’s population, appears to be a reaction to the main opposition Samajwadi Party’s increased outreach among non-Yadav OBC members in these elections. With the SP matching the BJP in announcing a large number of candidates from among the backward classes this time, the saffron party has made attempts to break the SP’s stranglehold among the Yadavs. like mentioned by the wireThis time, the SP fielded a large number of candidates from the Kurmi, Moria and Kushwaha communities, while reducing the share of Yadavs and Muslims.
Illustration: Pariblah Chakraborty
In the 62 seats that the SP is contesting as part of the All India Bloc, the party fielded only five Yadav candidates, all of them from the Yadav family of the late SP founder Mulayam Singh Yadav. In contrast, in 2019, when the SP contested 37 seats as part of the Mahagathbandhan, the party nominated nine Yadavs. In 2014, when the Socialist Party was in power in the state, the number was much higher, 12.
The drop in Yadav candidates was a signal from the Akhilesh Yadav-led party that it was countering the BJP’s constant propaganda about it being a ‘Yadavadi’ party by giving more space to other OBC organisations. Over the years, the perception that the SP’s core voters belong to the Muslim and Yadav communities, coupled with the idea that these people abuse state power to control other groups when the SP is in power, has hurt the party electorally. The BJP peddled fear of the Yadavs, equating them with Gondism and brutality, to garner support from other backward caste communities, including those who competed with the Yadavs for political space.
However, this time, in its bid to promote Hindu unity and OBC unity, the BJP latched on to the fact that the SP had fielded only Yadavs from his family and ignored other Yadavs. From Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Union Home Minister Amit Shah, UP Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya and Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav, several senior BJP leaders have made public appeals to Yadav in the past few days.
The five Yadav candidates for the SP are Akhilesh Yadav (Kannauj), his wife Dimple Yadav (Mainpuri), and his cousins Dharmendra Yadav (Azamgarh), Akshay Yadav (Firozabad) and Aditya Yadav (Budun).
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At a recent rally in Mainpuri, the Yadav family’s stronghold, Amit Shah questioned SP chief Akhilesh Yadav’s treatment of Yadavs from outside the family in distributing tickets. He accused the Yadav family of only promoting their family. “We congratulate Yadav,” says SP. “I have come to ask Akhilesh GeeDon’t you find any other Yadavs? You find them only in your family? What kind of Yadav Prem (Love for Yadav) Is this,” Shah asked while campaigning against Dimple Yadav.
Seeking votes for BJP candidate Jaiveer Singh, Shah said: “It is time to end the Parivarvadi Party in Mainpuri.”
The SP has won the Mainpuri seat in the last seven Lok Sabha elections and three by-polls. Mulayam Singh won in 1996, 2004, 2014 and 2019. His daughter-in-law Dimple was elected to Parliament in 2022 in a bypoll after Mulayam’s death at the age of 82.
At another rally in Etah, which also has a sizable Yadav population, Shah joked that if Akhilesh Yadav’s family had any other members above the age of 25, which is the legal age to contest LS elections, the SP would have fielded the family members. All seats are high.
“I understand you do Jativad. But even in jati, you only see your caste,” Shah said. In the last few elections in Etah, the SP candidate was Yadav. This time she is from the Shakya caste, which is also an OBC community. The current MP The BJP candidate from Etah is also OBC (Lodh), Rajveer Singh, son of former UP CM Kalyan Singh.
An awareness program for Yadavs was organized by the BJP in February. In the frame is BJP MLC Subhash Yaduvansh, who is being promoted as a Yadav youth leader. Photo: Special arrangement.
BJP attempts to divide OBC quota
Like in 2019, this time too, the BJP has fielded only one Yadav candidate in UP – Dinesh Lal Yadav aka Nirahua in Azamgarh. The Bhojpuri star-turned-SP politician defeated Dharmendra Yadav in a bypoll in 2022. Adityanath’s ministry also has only one minister, Yadav. The BJP’s campaign against Yadav was quite evident as the party accused the community of cornering most of the 27% OBC as well as positions of power due to the patronage extended by the SP.
Various BJP governments have tried to divide the OBC quota in the state to reduce the Yadav quota. In 2018, the Adityanath government formed a committee to divide the OBC quota. The authority submitted its report to the government, proposing to divide the 27% share into three parts: Pichda is empty (backward class) which gets 7%; ati pichda (more backward), who will get 11%; And the Awakening image (the most backward), who will receive 9% of the reservation. UP has 79 OBC castes.
However, the BJP put the report in cold storage as it became politically impractical to implement its findings. By pitting the Yadavs with other dominant castes like the Kurmi, Jats and Gurjars, the BJP missed the opportunity to isolate the Yadavs, as Rajnath Singh had tried to do during his tenure in the early 2000s. Over time, the BJP has developed a successful strategy of uniting non-Yadav OBCs on the anti-Yadav plank. “Sau mein Saat Hamara, 40 mein Batwara Hain aur Batware Mein Bhi Hamara Hain (60 out of 100 are ours. The remaining 40 are divided. But even in those 40 we have a share).”
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This equation, promoted by BJP leaders in the state, points to the party’s game of dividing and polarizing communities. The number ’60’ refers to the population of UP excluding the Jatavus, Yadavs and Muslims, who together constitute 40% of the population. The BJP’s formula also states that although its core voters belong to the upper castes, non-Yadav OBC and non-Jatav Dalit Hindu groups, the party has also been able to weaken the support base of the SP (Yadavs) and the BJP (Jatavs).
However, the Yadav family’s strategic negligence in selecting candidates has not stopped the BJP from reaching out to the community in constituencies where they enjoy significant votes. In Jaunpur, where the SP has traditionally fielded Yadav, the party has placed its bet on Babu Singh Kushwaha, a senior Kushwaha leader. Kushwahas and Mauryas are OBCs traditionally associated with horticulture.
In a bid to pit the Yadavs against the SP in Jaunpur, Deputy CM Maurya at a rally rejected the strategy of Akhilesh Yadav’s PDA – Pichda Dalit Alpsankhyak – as a Parivar Development Authority.
Targeting Akhilesh, Maurya said: “You have betrayed the country, the state and also your voters and supporters.” “If I may ask SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, are Yadavs only in your family? Five people are contesting from your family. You have not given a ticket to any other Yadav in UP,” Maurya said.
In his speech, Maurya bragged about how the BJP appointed Yadav MLA Girish Chandra Yadav as a minister in Yogi Adityanath’s government and picked ordinary worker and MLA Mohan Yadav for the post of chief minister in Parliament. “Any BJP worker, be he from any caste or community, can rise from the position of a booth boss to become the national president (of the party),” Maurya said.
The BJP is also resorting to Hindutva and spreading its distortions of the Congress manifesto to unite OBCs, including Yadavs, to hurt the SP.
In Agra, while Narendra Modi falsely accused the Congress of stealing quotas from OBCs and giving them to Muslims, he said that while Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav were talking about OBCs in their public rallies, “from the back door, they are consolidating their vote bank and giving support” and giving rights to them.
Modi, who often accuses his opponents of casteism, listed a number of OBC, Kurmi, Maurya, Kushwaha, Jat, Gurjar, Yadav, Rajbhar, Teli and Gadaria castes, and accused the SP of treason. “For its own vote bank, the SP is committing the biggest betrayal against Yadav and other NGOs,” Modi said.
On April 19, at another rally in Amroha, Modi raised Yadav’s association with Lord Krishna to play his Hindutva card.
Modi targeted the Yadav leaders of the SP and the Rashtriya Janata Dal in Bihar – Akhilesh Yadav and Lalu Yadav’s family – for their alliance with the Congress party, which he accused of insulting a person – Modi himself – who went underwater in the sea and offered prayers. In the underwater “old” city of Dwarka associated with Lord Krishna by Hindus.
“Those people who beat the drum by calling themselves Yaduvanshis, I want to ask them. Those in Bihar who claim to be Yaduvanshis and those leaders in UP who are out to reap the benefits of (Malai Khan) from (the background of) Yaduvanshis, I want to ask them, if you are the real Yaduvanshis, How can you sit together with a party that has insulted someone who worships Bhagwan Dwarika? How can you reach an understanding with them?”
In the run-up to the 2024 elections, the BJP ran a campaign – ‘Yadav Modiji ke Saath’ – to woo the community. In March, the BJP roped in Yadav MP Mohan Yadav to address Yadav’s Mahakumbh outreach program in Lucknow.
On April 29, Mohan Yadav returned to UP, this time to accompany Smriti Irani, one of Modi’s most favored ministers, on her way to file her nomination in Amethi. Mohan Yadav has a personal relationship with Amethi. His wife hails from Sultanpur district, from which Amethi was carved out in 2010.
“I heard that there are a large number of Yaduvanshis (Yadavs) here. I want to tell all the Yaduvanshis that you are blessed… 5,000 years ago, Lord Krishna sacrificed his entire life for Dharma. He struggled for Dharma all his life. Mohan Yadav said in His speech before a promo: “Today, that time has come before us again.”
The MP CM also referred to the ongoing battle in Mathura where right-wing Muslim petitioners want to hand over Shahi Eidgah Mosque to Shree Krishna Janmasthan temple. “I have pain in my heart. When Ram ji is happy, what mistake has Krishna Kanhaiya done? Even he has to smile. Lord Krishna will also smile.
The moral of Mohan Yadav’s statement is that the BJP hopes that the Hindu side will also win the legal battle in Mathura and take over the Mughal era mosque just like it did in Ayodhya.
The Yadavs are an important part of the vote in parts of eastern UP, central UP and the Braj belt. However, in some constituencies, they play a large role in determining the winner or loser. In 2014, all five seats won by the SP in UP were seats held by the Yadav family. In 2019, the SP again won just five seats – this time two of the five Yadavs, Akhilesh Yadav and his father Mulayam Singh Yadav. The other three candidates from the Yadav family – Dimple Yadav, Akshay Yadav and Dharmendra Yadav – lost in Kannauj, Firozabad and Budaun respectively.
However, unlike the last elections, in this election the Yadav family is united once again with Akhilesh’s uncle Shivpal Yadav returning to the fold. Known for his tough, old-school organizational skills, Shivpal helped his nephew recover his losses in the area near his ancestral village Saifai.
If the Socialist Party hopes to improve its performance, it must ensure that, unlike last time, it does not face any unrest in its strong seats.