Express News Service
NEW DELHI: Sensing consolidation of the minority vote base behind the Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh, BJP will soon unveil a caste outreach in the run-up to next year’s Assembly elections, with an eye on consolidation of the backward caste electoral constituencies.
The BJP is learnt to have planned to reach out to each caste, with plans to hold meetings with intellectuals, besides rallies and public meetings. With the understanding that upper castes will continue to back the party, the focus of the saffron outfit will be more on other backward castes, economically backward castes and most backward castes.
BJP will have a number of meetings and the various wings of the party will hold two such meetings in each of the constituencies, to work for the consolidation of the vote base in favour of the party, said a senior BJP functionary.
The BJP is sensing that the Muslim-Yadav consolidation will be the electoral template of the Samajwadi Party led grand alliance if that takes the form on the line of the recent previous polls. “The minority vote base by and large will consolidate in favour of SP by taking a cue from the West Bengal Assembly elections where they strategically backed TMC across the state by distancing from Congress and Left parties. That pattern is likely in UP, which can give SP a good start,” said another senior BJP functionary.
While the Yadavs are known to have a preference for SP in the local polls, the BJP is learnt to have strategised to dent the core vote base of the Akhilesh Yadav led outfit, with hopes that even a 15-20 per cent drift of votes could meaningfully impact the outcome of the Assembly polls.
“The BJP will hold closed door meetings with intellectuals from each of the castes among the OBCs, MBCs, and EBCs since they are known to have the capacity to influence their caste members in times of elections. Besides, there will be exclusive public meetings of each of the caste groups,” added the BJP functionary.