The Sapaks Samaj Party held a rally of Brahmins in Ujjain in September, and is constantly trying to woo the BJP’s core upper caste voters.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Madhya Pradesh (MP) is worried about the rally of Brahmins held by the Samanya Pichhra Alpsankhyak Kalyan Samaj Party (Sapaks) in Ujjain in September. The BJP fears that it might lose its core upper caste voters’ base, and is closely watching the steps of the Sapaks Samaj Party which has said that it would contest all the 230 seats and is constantly trying to woo the BJP’s core upper caste voters. Assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh are scheduled to be held on 28 November.
According to sources, the central BJP leadership has directed the state unit to meet upper caste leaders in the state who have been marginalised over time.
A source close to the BJP state unit told The Sunday Guardian: “BJP state president Rakesh Singh has met several Brahmin leaders, including Chaudhary Rakesh Singh Chaturvedi, an upper caste leader who had switched from the Congress and joined the BJP. The exercise of meeting senior upper caste leaders in the state started on BJP president Amit Shah’s direction.”
Sapaks is an organisation of general category, OBC and minority government staff in the state. The outfit was set up to protest against the state government’s decisions to announce reservation in promotion for SCs and STs and the Centre’s move to restore the stringent provisions of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
“Senior BJP leaders have also met several other Brahmin faces in the state. The upper caste leaders who are being paid attention to by the BJP in Madhya Pradesh include, Laxmikant Sharma, Anoop Mishra, Raghunandan Sharma, and Hitesh Bajpai,” the same source cited earlier said.
BJP leader and Cabinet minister of MP, Hitesh Bajpai had raised the issue that in the current political environment, Brahmins are being ignored.
On his Facebook wall, he had written that youth of the society should not be derailed due to growing casteism in society. Bajpai said that Brahmins in the state should be reached out to.
Bajpai told The Sunday Guardian: “The party is giving importance to leaders of all social backgrounds, but special attention is needed for its core support base.”
On 16 October, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan shared the dais with a Brahmin leader, Laxmikant Sharma, once a key figure of the BJP in the state. Sharma was sidelined after his name appeared in the Vyapam scam. A source said that the BJP was likely to field Sharma from the Sironj Assembly constituency.
“The decision about Chouhan sharing the dais with Sharma was taken on the direction of the BJP’s central leadership. The party wants to send a clear message to its core constituency in the state,” the same source quoted above said.
Before the announcement of the poll process in Madhya Pradesh, the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government had announced a 300% hike in honorarium for some 52,000 priests.
As per political observers, the decision to increase the honorarium for priests was taken to woo Brahmins and upper caste voters in MP.
However, the Bahujan Samaj Party’s (BSP) decision of not forming an alliance with the Congress has given a relief to the BJP in the state.
According to political observers, the BSP is not a big force in Madhya Pradesh, but it had secured 6% votes in the last Assembly elections in 2013.
Also, the BSP had secured a little over 10% votes in 69 constituencies in the 2013 Assembly elections. With no alliance opposing it, BJP has got a clear edge in the state.