Sunday, November 10th, 2024

BJP’s eyes beyond the dominant castes, how the saffron party changed its strategy after the setback in the general elections

New Delhi: Victory in the Haryana Assembly elections has given the necessary strength to BJP. The lower than expected results in the Lok Sabha elections had created disappointment in the BJP camp. Then in Haryana, when the dominant caste Jat of the state opened a front against BJP, an uncomfortable situation arose for the party. A narrative of unity of ‘jawan, farmer, wrestler’ was created against BJP in the state. In such an environment, BJP ensured to form the government for the third time by securing majority on its own.

Narrative of upcoming elections changed due to Haryana result

This success also changed the atmosphere of the upcoming assembly elections. The way BJP has largely neutralized the opposition of the Jats, the most dominant caste group in Haryana, it will definitely send a message to the Marathas in Maharashtra and the tribals in Jharkhand who had opposed the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections. Assembly elections are going to be held in both these states this year.

With EBC, why worry?

Since Narendra Modi became Prime Minister in 2014, the BJP has made efforts to consolidate non-dominant castes as well as extremely backward classes (EBCs) in several assembly elections. This EBC group consists of artisan castes who do not own land. Like in Haryana, non-dominant castes like Saini, Kumhar, Khati (carpenter) and Barber supported the BJP and emerged as new support base for the party in the state.

BJP’s bet on castes with small population

In Jharkhand and Maharashtra the BJP has in the past tried to politically unite non-dominant castes, which are smaller in population. BJP’s victory in Haryana will further strengthen its strategy for the upcoming assembly elections in Jharkhand and Maharashtra to win over smaller politically less influential castes. On the other hand, BJP would also like that with its support base among the upper castes, it can field these backward castes by social engineering them in the election field.

BJP’s sentiment increased in Maharashtra-Jharkhand

With the victory of Haryana, BJP is now ahead in the matter of seat sharing with its allies. In Maharashtra, Shiv Sena is trying to negotiate seat sharing based on the performance in the recent Lok Sabha elections, where BJP won nine seats and Shiv Sena seven. But BJP’s victory in Haryana elections turned the tables. Now BJP will decide on seat sharing and the allies will have to accept. Maharashtra BJP sources told our associate newspaper The Economic Times (ET) that BJP will still behave generously with its allies but in Maharashtra, BJP will contest elections in all areas because it has the ability to attract votes for its allies also.

Will BJP boast of seat sharing with allies?

AJSU leader Sudesh Mahato in Jharkhand held two meetings with the national leadership of BJP in Delhi. Mahato wants to contest elections on 13 seats. However, BJP was offering them eight seats, on which AJSU had contested in alliance with BJP in 2014. In 2019, AJSU alone contested 53 seats and could win only two. With victory in Haryana, BJP will now put pressure on AJSU to bring it to single digit numbers. Apart from AJSU, BJP can accommodate JDU with two seats. There has been no discussion yet on giving one seat to LJP (Ram Vilas).

(With inputs from reports by ET’s Jatin Takkar and Kumar Anshuman)

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