To nullify Oppn’s caste survey plank, BJP preparing for intensive OBC outreach in UP

The party is preparing to hold at least 10-20 OBC sammelans in each district from next month.

BJP insiders said the OBC wing would also mark the anniversaries of prominent OBC icons. (Express File Photo)

With the Opposition likely to make the demand for a caste survey one of its primary electoral agenda during the Lok Sabha poll campaign, the BJP in Uttar Pradesh is gearing up to push back with an intensive outreach to castes and sub-castes in the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category in all 75 districts of the state.

“In every district, there are OBC communities with more than 20,000 voters. The plan is to connect with at least 250 leaders or workers of these communities and identify at least five social workers from these communities who can organise Samajik Sammelans for that particular community. There are 79 registered OBC castes and we plan to reach out to a majority of them individually. There are about 10-20 prevalent castes in any given district if we go by Vidhan Sabha-wise data,” said a BJP functionary involved with the outreach initiative.

Party insiders said the plan was to start the micro OBC sammelans from February onwards. The aim is to organise 10 to 20 OBC sammelans in each district, they said. Through these events, the BJP is hoping to address the problems and concerns of these communities and spread awareness about welfare schemes applicable to them.

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“It will be an extensive programme involving 403 Vidhan Sabha constituencies. We plan to name them ‘Samajik Sammelan’ and we will attempt to hold as many as possible in a district at the micro level. For example, if there are five Assembly seats in a district, the sammelans of prominent castes in that particular Assembly segment will take place in that area. Then a bigger OBC Sammelan will take place at the district level, with focus on all the prominent castes of that district, touching on their issues and concerns,” state minister and BJP OBC Morcha’s state president Narendra Kashyap told The Indian Express. He said the data was still being gathered and the dates would be finalised soon.

BJP insiders said the OBC wing would also mark the anniversaries of prominent OBC icons.

In November, the BJP central leadership convened a meeting of various state units, including UP, to discuss the “advantages and disadvantages” of the party’s current position of not going for a caste survey. Besides Adityanath, the meeting was attended by a host of BJP leaders from UP, including Deputy Chief Ministers Keshav Prasad Maurya and Brajesh Pathak, state BJP president Bhupendra Chaudhary as well as MP Sangam Lal Gupta and Union Minister Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti.

With 80 Lok Sabha seats in UP — the party won 62 of those in 2019 — the party is keen to retain its hold in the state where the votes of OBCs play a significant role in the electoral outcome. The party has ramped up its efforts to reach out to OBCs following its loss in the Ghosi Assembly bypoll in September. In a seat dominated by OBCs, BJP candidate Dara Singh Chauhan who is from the Noni Chauhan OBC community was defeated by the Samajwadi Party’s Sudhakar Singh who is a non-OBC.

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