Caste is going to be the main factor in selection of candidates by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) combine in 27 key constituencies in western Uttar Pradesh for the coming Lok Sabha elections. Polls to these seats are to be held on May 7.
According to BJP general secretary Arun Jaitley, who negotiated Ajit Singh-led RLD’s re-entry into the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA), the two parties will wait for rival parties — the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Congress-Samajwadi Party combine — to nominate their candidates before naming their own.
“I have realised that in UP there are more castes than political parties,” Jaitley told reporters today after Singh’s ceremonial entry into the NDA in the presence of LK Advani, NDA’s prime ministerial candidate, BJP chief Rajnath Singh and NDA convenor Sharad Yadav.
Ajit Singh has been allocated seven seats in the region that is dominated by Jats, who are presumed to support Singh and his ally. Though Singh is an electronics engineer, he enjoys the image of a “kisan leader” because of his late father and former PM Choudhary Charan Singh’s legacy. “The seats can be changed (between BJP and RLD) depending on the caste factors,” said Jaitley.
The BJP, which hopes to strike it rich this time from this region, is carefully working out the caste combinations to send positive signals to all social groupings across the state to reap a wider benefit from the elections.
“We are taking care to choose candidates from different social groups in different constituencies so that it creates an impact across the region,” a senior party leader said.
Rajnath Singh, who belongs to the Rajput caste, is contesting from Ghaziabad, while his party has already shortlisted candidates belonging to Other Backward Classes, Jat, Gujjar, Vashya and Brahmin for the surrounding western UP constituencies.
“The caste is such a dominant factor here that we cannot give an edge to rivals by disclosing our cards first,” he said.
