Breaking SP hold on Yadavs its long game, BJP now deploys Madhya Pradesh CM in UP

Mohan Yadav takes a dig at Akhilesh Yadav at an event in Lucknow, tells the crowd that Yadavs have the right to prosper as a community and not just “one family”.

manoj yadav, madhya pradesh, indian express

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav with Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Brajesh Pathak being garlanded during the 'Yadav Mahakumbh' rally, in Lucknow, Sunday, March 3, 2024. (PTI Photo)

A surprise choice as Madhya Pradesh chief minister, the BJP has utilised Mohan Yadav not just in his state but also in Bihar and is now looking to do the same in Uttar Pradesh. The party has invoked Hindu deity Krishna and made Yadav the face of its outreach to the community.

In his second visit to UP in less than a month, the Madhya Pradesh CM addressed the “Yadav Mahakumbh” in Lucknow, telling the crowd they should be proud to be “Yaduvanshi (from the lineage of Krishna)”. A petitioner in the Krishna Janmabhoomi case in Mathura, Manish Yadav, organised the event. The BJP’s strategy, as underlined by the message sent out during the event, is to break the Samajwadi Party’s (SP) Yadav vote bank, similar to the aim it has in Bihar where it wants to erode the Rashtriya Janata Dal’s (RJD) Yadav support.

At the event, the Madhya Pradesh CM, in a dig at SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, said the “Yaduvanshi” had the right to prosper as a community and not just “one family”. “We are proud that we come from the lineage connected to Shri Krishna,” Yadav told the crowd in Lucknow. The Madhya Pradesh CM told the crowd that he had started work on developing “teerth kshetra (pilgrimage sites)” associated with Krishna in his state. Emphasising his link with UP, Yadav who was in Azamgarh last month reminded the crowd his “sasural (the home of his in-laws)” is in the state and decades ago his ancestors migrated from Azamgarh to Madhya Pradesh. He also promised to keep coming back to the state. “I will keep meeting you … It does not bother if someone has a problem,” he said.

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Earlier in the day, the Mahakumbh’s organiser Manish Yadav targeted Akhilesh saying that some select members of the community in a handful of regions benefitted under SP rule.

Responding to Mohan Yadav’s visits, Akhilesh Yadav said, “These are old practices, which are never successful.” The Congress secretary for organisation in the state, Anil Yadav, referred to the “Yadav Mahakumbh” as “mere election drama”. Asking the community to be aware of those who spread the “poison of hatred”, the Congress leader asked “where these Yadavs were” when community members in UP were falling victim to crimes.

RJD also in the sights

Sources in the BJP said the ruling party had identified Yadav faces, including sitting and former MLAs and MPs with some say in the community, who would campaign across the state, asking Yadavs to “come out of the umbrella of one family” in the state.

Sources in the SP and the Congress said the parties were watchful of the BJP’s attempts to reach out to Yadavs in the name of Krishna. “While everyone knows that these are election tactics and that BJP leaders were targeting the community by calling them ‘goondas’ during the 2017 Assembly elections. But we fear they will try to polarise again like in the past. We will ask the community to be aware of their tactics and not fall for them,” said an Opposition leader.

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The elevation of Yadav as Madhya Pradesh CM in December was seen in the party as a pitch to Yadavs across the Hindi belt. While in UP, they have been the core voter base of the SP, in Bihar they are the biggest caste group and have been loyal to the RJD. In January, a forum unofficially backed by the BJP felicitated Mohan Yadav at an event in Patna.

In the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP was seen to have managed to secure at least some Yadav votes due to the popularity of Narendra Modi as well as its Hindutva and nationalism agenda. But the party now wants to dent the influence of the Yadav political families that have largely sided with Lohiaite politics. Even if a section of Yadavs shifts to the BJP in the Lok Sabha, the impact will be huge as the BJP already has significant leads among other groups.