What helped SP-Congress upset BJP’s UP applecart

Behind the remarkable turnaround for the Opposition Samajwadi Party (SP) and Congress in Uttar Pradesh where the INDIA bloc is leading in 45 of the total 80 Lok Sabha seats, some fascinating factors may have given them an upper hand over the BJP.

One of the factors that may have worked in favour of the SP, which is leading in 37 seats, is its ticket-distribution strategy. Unlike previous elections, the SP ticket distribution focused on non-Yadav OBCs.

While the SP fielded only five Yadavs – all from the family of party chief Akhilesh Yadav — it gave 27 tickets to non-Yadav OBCs; 11 to upper castes, including four Brahmins, two Thakurs, two Vaishyas, and one Khatri; and four to Muslims, besides 15 Dalit candidates in the SC-reserved constituencies.

In the last Lok Sabha election in 2019, when the SP contested 37 of the 80 seats in UP in alliance with Mayawati’s BSP and Jayant Chaudhary’s Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), it had fielded 10 Yadav candidates. It had then won 5 seats and its ally BSP 10. The BJP, on the other hand, had won 62 seats. Two seats were won by NDA ally Apna Dal (S).

In 2014, the SP had contested 78 seats, and fielded 12 Yadav candidates, including four from the “first family”, that is Mulayam’s clan.
“Our party was sure of the support from the Yadavs and Muslims. But we wanted to expand our base beyond these two communities and reach out to non-Yadav OBCs and Dalits, which seems to have happened now,” said a senior SP leader as trends showed the party winning more seats than expected.

Also, the SP changed candidates in several constituencies, depending on feedback from local cadre and local caste equation.
In contrast, this time the BJP, which contested 75 seats in UP (it has left five seats for three allies),