Seeking to expand base, SP fields only 5 Yadavs in UP, but all from Mulayam family

Confident of retaining its core Muslim-Yadav voter base and seeking to make inroads into the votes of non-Yadav OBCs, who are seen to be consolidated in favour of the BJP, the Samajwadi Party (SP) has fielded only five candidates from the Yadav community in the 62 seats it is contesting in Uttar Pradesh in the Lok Sabha elections.

Incidentally, all five are from party founder Mulayam Singh Yadav’s family.

In 2019, when the SP contested 37 of the state’s 80 Lok Sabha seats in alliance with Mayawati’s BSP and Jayant Chaudhary’s Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), it fielded 10 Yadav candidates. In 2014, it contested 78 seats and nominated 12 Yadav candidates, including four from the “first family”, that is Mulayam’s clan.

“The Muslims and Yadavs are firmly behind us. The party’s vote share increased when it joined hands with smaller parties, who draw the support of non-Yadav OBCs. The party has accommodated candidates from other communities to reach out to voters of other OBC groups and upper castes,” an SP leader said on the condition of anonymity.

Akhilesh has, in fact, coined a new slogan for the vote base he is banking on this time, expanding from “M-Y” or Muslim-Yadav to “PDA” or “Pichde, Dalit, Alpasankhyak”.

So, while five SP tickets have gone to Yadavs, it has fielded 27 candidates belonging to other OBCs, 11 upper castes (including four Brahmins, two Thakurs, two Vaishyas and one Khatri) and four Muslims. It has nominated 15 Dalit candidates in SC-reserved seats.

In contrast, the BJP, which is contesting 75 seats in UP (it has left five seats for three allies), has fielded 34 upper castes (16 Brahmins, 13 Thakurs, 2 Vaishyas and 3 belonging to other upper castes) and 25 OBCs, including one Yadav (Dinesh Lala Yadav in Azamgarh).