Non-Yadav OBC votes: As SP bets on Rajbhar, too many cards in play

Seeking to expand its base beyond Muslims and Yadavs, the SP has tied up with parties representing non-Yadav OBCs in the state, like Rajbhars.

At Madhav’s Tilathia village, with all its 300 houses belonging to the Rajbhar community, this seems to be paying off. Madhav, 82, a marginal farmer, says “iss gaon ka har vote (every vote of this village)” is for Om Prakash Rajbhar, the chief of the Suheldeo Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP).

Apart from the SBSP, the SP has tied up with the Mahan Dal led by Keshav Dev Maurya, Janwadi Party (Socialist) led by Sanjay Singh Chauhan, Shivpal Yadav’s Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (Lohia), Apna Dal-Kamerawadi led by Union Minister Anupriya Patel’s mother Krishna Patel, apart from the RLD in western UP.

The Rajbhars comprise around 3-4% of UP’s population, concentrated in the Purvanchal region. The SP, which has been talking about the SBSP drawing other OBC sub-castes as well, has given the party as many as 17 seats, most of them in eastern UP.

In 2017, when the SBSP had allied with the BJP and fought eight seats, it had won four — Ramakola (Kushinagar), Ajagara (Varanasi), Zahoorabad (Ghazipur) and Jakhanian (Ghazipur). Om Prakash had won Zahoorabad by 18,081 votes, defeating the BSP’s Kalicharan Rajbhar. The SP’s Mahendra had stood third.

This time, while Rajbhar is contesting from the seat as an SBSP-SP candidate, Kalicharan is the BJP nominee, while the BSP has fielded Syeda Shadab Fatima, its MLA from Zahoorabad in 2012. The AIMIM, which has aligned with Babu Singh Kushwaha’s Jan Adhikar Party, has fielded Shaukat Ali.

Zahoorabad has almost an equal number of Rajbhars, Dalits and Yadavs, apart from slightly fewer Bhumihars, Bind, Brahmin and Kushwahas.

Ghazipur-based SP leader Abhishek Yadav says the alliance is impregnable as the non-OBC voters are flocking to it, impressed by SP chief Akhilesh Yadav. “Their vote is going to either the bicycle (SP) or the stick (SBSP),” says Yadav.

However, that may be wishful. A local BJP leader says that the SP can’t transfer votes to it as easily as the BJP could. “The BJP is acceptable to most backward classes, whereas the SP has always been a party of Yadavs,” he says.

This scepticism is evident in the remarks of Jigan, 27, a small Nishad farmer with three children in Ghajia village. As NISHAD Party leader Sanjay Nishad has aligned with the BJP, Jigan says, he will vote for “kamal (lotus)”. “We like Babaji (Yogi Adityanath), but more so, my vote is for Sanjay Nishad. Also, the BJP gave us free ration. Who has done that before?”

In Mubarakpur Net village, Umesh, 44, a Dalit shopkeeper, says he will vote for the BSP as SCs don’t count for the SP. “Why should I vote for a party which will not believe I voted for them?” Umesh says, unmoved by the arguments of an SP supporter that “Akhileshji has said that Ambedkarwadi and Lohiawadi must come together”.

The Jan Adhikar Party is also queering the SP-SBSP pitch. Chhote Lal, 40, a vegetable seller in Alawalpur town, says the Kushwahas will go with Babu Singh, a former minister, even if the third front he has forged with the AIMIM may not amount to much. “I know the AIMIM candidate will not win, but my vote will go to a Kushwaha, not a Rajbhar,” Chhote Lal says.

In one seat, Shivpur in Varanasi district, the SBSP is facing a direct challenge. Here Om Prakash’s son Arvind is facing sitting BJP MLA Anil Rajbhar. Anil Rajbhar incidentally had been inducted as OBC Welfare minister in the Adityanath government after Om Prakash exited the BJP alliance in 2019, and the party has projected him as its Rajbhar face as a counter to Om Prakash.

In 2017, the SBSP was a BJP ally when Anil Rajbhar had won the seat by a margin of over 53,000 votes, against the SP’s Anand Mohan Yadav.

Akhilesh held his recent rally with RLD chief Jayant Chaudhary and West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee in Shivpur.

Of Shivpur seat’s 3.68 lakh voters, Brahmins (50,000), Rajbhars (55,000), Yadavs (45,000), Dalits (40,000) and Patels (35,000) are almost evenly matched. Then there are around 25,000 Mauryas and 18,000 Muslims.

In Soipur village of Shivpur, Prakash Rajbhar says that last time, the entire community had voted for Anil Rajbhar. This time, he says, there will be a division, with the BJP aggressively campaigning. “It has given honour to Raja Suheldev. It has told people how Om Prakash opposed a grand memorial for Suheldev in Bahraich because he eyed Muslim voters,” says Prakash.

Apart from the Brahmins, the BJP is hoping to get Patel votes, through ally Apna Dal (S), Maurya votes after Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya pitched in, and the Dalit votes because of the free ration during the pandemic. The BSP has fielded a Maurya candidate.

Arvind Rajbhar is banking on enough Rajbhars coming his way, apart from the SP’s traditional vote bank of Yadavs and Muslims.

On Saturday, wrapping up his campaign, Arvind said, “All the social equations are in my favour, even Brahmins are with me. Ninety percent of Rajbhars are supporting me because the community knows that Om Prakash Rajbhar is the only leader fighting for their rights.”