Community aspiring for SC status tastes first victory with a little help from BJP

Suheldev Bahujan Samaj Party has long been asking to be classified as SCs won 4 out of 8 seats

Last Updated : Mar 12 2017 | 7:30 PM IST

The Rajbhars, an OBC community from Eastern Uttar Pradesh, have fought three general elections and six state elections since 2004, but were yet to win a seat. This time, in alliance with the BJP, their party Suheldev Bahujan Samaj Party(SBSP) has won four out of the eight seats it contested. The party had put up a candidate against BSP heavyweight Mukhtar Ansari in Mau. The party’s candidate lost to Ansari by around 8,700 votes.

The party won the seats of Ajkara (Varanasi), Ramkola (Kushinagar), Jakahania and Zahorabad (Ghazipur). All the eight seats contested by the party are clustered and sandwiched between the Ganga and its left bank tributary Gandaki. Ganga’s boatmen who are one of the 34 sub-castes under the Rajbharshave have also long been demanding that their community be classified as Schedule Castes (SCs) rather than OBCs. The BJP has been facing a similar demand from Jats in Haryana.

Akhilesh Yadav had tried to woo the community in the run-up to the elections by recognising 17 subcastes of Rajbhars as SCs in December 2016. In January this year, the Allahabad high court had stayed the decision. As Chief Minister of UP, Mayawati has sent proposals to the centre pushing for their reservation as SCs.

Rajbhars are a crucial vote-bank in Eastern Uttar Pradesh. Constituting almost 2.6% of the state’s population, they are more concentrated in and around the UP-Bihar border. The party has also fought four elections in Bihar since 2005 but hasn’t found success there either.

BJP has said following its big win in UP that it has blunted caste calculations through development. But the nuances of Rajbhars are a tad different from others. This win can be ascribed to the party’s early association with the BJP.

This is also the lowest number of seats contested by the party since it started fighting elections. In 2012, it had contested 52 seats winning none. In 2007, it had fought 97 seats losing in all. The BJP’ magic certainly seems to have worked for the SBSP in 2017. The alliance was firmed up in June 2016 when BJP president Amit Shah had reportedly addressed an assembly of dalits and mahadalits organised by SBSP in June 2016 after which an alliance was firmed up. With Shah having identified the community with dalits and mahadalits and an NDA government in power at the centre, the community may move closer to their objective of achieving SC status in the state.