In Apna Dal chief’s letter to CM Yogi over reserved posts, a sense of disquiet about OBC votes

Behind BJP ally Anupriya Patel’s letter to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath alleging that reserved seats meant for Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs), and Other Backward Classes (OBCs) become “unreserved” during the government recruitment process lies a deeper concern among the ruling party’s coalition partners about the shift in SC and OBC votes to the Opposition in the Lok Sabha elections.

Apart from Anupriya’s Apna Dal (Soneylal), other BJP allies in UP such as the NISHAD Party and Om Prakash Rajbhar’s Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) are reportedly concerned about this, particularly the shifting of allegiance by Kurmis, who form the foundation of the Apna Dal’s support in east and central UP. While Anupriya, a Union Minister of State, saw her victory margin in Mirzapur drop from 2.3 lakh to 37,810, the party lost the only other seat it contested, Robertsganj, by 1.29 lakh votes. Meanwhile, both NISHAD Party leader Sanjay Nishad’s son Pravin and Rajbhar’s son Arvind lost their elections from Sant Kabir Nagar and Ghosi respectively.

At 34, the current Lok Sabha has a record number of parliamentarians from UP who belong to OBC communities. Of them, 21 are from the Opposition, including seven Kurmis, one of the largest OBC groups after Yadavs. Apart from the five members of SP’s Yadav family, the other OBC Opposition MPs include three Patels, two Nishads, two Vermas, Kushwahas, Rajbhars, and Lodhis. For the BJP, which coasted to victory in UP in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections and the 2017 Assembly polls riding on a coalition of non-Yadav OBC votes and non-Jatav Dalit votes, this illustrates it has a problem on its hands.

“The shift has been felt by all, including our alliance partners,” said a BJP