Why Anupriya Patel’s party has placed a little-known Dalit leader at the helm in UP

According to insiders, Gautam’s name was finalised after a group of top party leaders, including Anupriya and Uttar Pradesh Minister Ashish Patel, her husband, held a series of meetings in Delhi and Lucknow over the last month.

Explaining why Gautam was chosen, a party leader said, “Other Dalit sub-castes are scattered and are concentrated in certain regions and districts, but Jatavs are spread across all 403 Assembly constituencies of the state and number around 30,000-50,000 in each seat.”

The move comes close on the heels of the Samajwadi Party (SP) stepping up its efforts to reach out to Dalits and inducting Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) founder-member Daddu Prasad. The party also held week-long celebrations to commemorate Dr B R Ambedkar’s birth anniversary on April 14. Recently, when its MP Ramji Lal Suman came under fire for his alleged derogatory comments on Rajput king Rana Sanga, the SP countered by saying the attacks were “anti-Dalit”.

Dalits make up 21% of Uttar Pradesh’s population, of which Jatavs make up 14%, followed by the Pasis at 7%. While Jatavs are seen to be the core voter base of the Mayawati-led BSP, Pasis have rallied behind the SP since last year’s Lok Sabha elections. After bagging the most parliamentary seats from UP, the SP promoted Faizabad MP Awadesh Prasad, who belongs to the community.

Another Apna Dal said that support from the Jatavs, combined with the party’s core Kurmi and Extremely Backward Classes (EBC) support base, will put it in a good position in next year’s local body elections as well as the Assembly polls. At present, the party has 13 MLAs while Anupriya is its sole Lok Sabha MP.

Senior Apnal Dal leaders pointed to the successes the BSP achieved when its Jatav support base combined with OBC faces such as Ram Khelawan Verma, Babu Singh Kushwaha, and Lalji Verma. The social combination, according to the leader, has been the foundation of the Apna Dal since its inception in November 1995 by Sonelal Patel who, he said, was an avid follower of BSP founder Kanshi Ram. Though Sonelal Patel did not win any election, he made his presence felt in the state’s politics and rose to become a Kurmi face. The Apna Dal currently holds sway in areas such as Prayagraj, Kaushambi and its adjoining districts.

Ashish Patel said the Apna Dal’s foundational value was always uplifting the suppressed classes. “Of our 13 legislators, five are from Dalit communities (three Jatavs, one Kol and one Pasi), five from the Kurmi community and one each from the Brahmin, Muslim and Sonar communities. This is evidence that our party gives representation to all the communities,” he said.

Though it came as a surprise to many that Gautam was appointed, it is not the first time that the party has chosen a Dalit leader to helm its Uttar Pradesh unit. Earlier, Jamuna Prasad Saroj, a Pasi leader, led the state unit.

The rejig was necessitated after the party’s state executive was dissolved about a year ago following the resignation of former state chief Rajkumar Pal, an OBC leader.

Alleging that Ashish and Anupriya Patel were “ignoring” him and “not keeping him in the loop” about party affairs, Pal had said in his resignation letter that the party had deviated from the ideology of Ambedkar and Sonelal Patel.

A senior Apna Dal leader said Pal’s “odd behaviour and other activities” had led to the state executive being dissolved and claimed that the former state chief “had been warned several times” about his actions.