The candidate landscape in the by-elections to nine Uttar Pradesh Assembly seats has become clear. The last date for nomination is today i.e. October 25 and a day before, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) announced the candidates. The Samajwadi Party (SP) also announced candidates for the remaining seats after the prospect of alliance with the Congress became clear. Some have carried forward the successful experiment of Lok Sabha elections, while others have tried to right the wrongs. From the SP and the BJP to the BSP, three three-party experiments in ticket distribution are observed.
1- SP’s ‘Faizabad formula’ in Ghaziabad seat
The SP had fielded a Dalit leader as a candidate for the Faizabad Lok Sabha seat in Ayodhya district in the Lok Sabha elections. The Faizabad seat was normal. The party repeated the same experiment in the assembly by-elections in the Ghaziabad Sadar assembly seat. Ghaziabad is a general seat and SP has given ticket to Singh Raj Jatav from here. This is the first time the party has fielded a Dalit face in this general seat. In Faizabad, the Dalit card formula was a success in the general seat and the party managed to win the prestigious seat.
Ghaziabad is also considered a BJP stronghold. This time, whether this formula succeeds or fails, only the electoral results will tell. The SP distributed tickets for the by-elections based on the PDA formula. The party has banked on two Dalit faces – Dr Charu Kane from Khair (reserved) seat of Aligarh district and Singh Raj Jatav from Ghaziabad – while it has also banked on four Muslim and three backward faces. Talking about the SP’s Muslim candidates, tickets have been given to Mohammad Rizwan from Kundarki, Naseem Solanki from Sisamau, Mustafa Siddiqui from Phulpur and Sumbul Rana from Mirapur. Akhilesh Yadav’s party has fielded OBC faces like Tej Pratap Yadav from Karhal, Shobhavati Verma from Katehri seat and Jyoti Bind from Majhwan seat.
2- BJP returned to cadre and OBC formula
In the Lok Sabha elections, the BJP had generously given tickets to leaders of other parties. This was also said to be one of the reasons for the party’s poor performance. The BJP has corrected this mistake in the by-elections by focusing on cadres. The BJP is contesting by-elections in eight of the nine seats in UP and has left one seat for its ally RLD. Of the eight candidates announced by the BJP, out of four, preference has been given to former party cadres. The party has also rewarded Sanjeev Sharma, who left the SP 17 years ago.
Also Read: Free hand or compulsion strategy for Akhilesh in UP? Has Congress learned a lesson from Haryana’s defeat?
Anujesh Yadav, BJP candidate from Karhal seat, was earlier in SP. Dharamraj Nishad, Katehri’s candidate, has been a minister in Mayawati’s government. He left the BSP and joined the SP. At the same time, Phulpur candidate Deepak Patel also represented Karchana Assembly seat by winning the elections on BSP ticket. A total of four candidates have come to the BJP from other parties, while the party has balanced the cadres and the outsiders by giving entries to four former and dedicated leaders of the organisation. The party had canceled the candidature of Majhwan candidate Suchismita Maurya in 2022.
Also read: UP by-elections: BJP gave ticket to Surendra Diler from Khair seat, his father and grandfather have been MPs.
Talking about caste equations, a maximum number of tickets have been given to OBCs in the BJP candidate list. Four leaders from the OBC category, Anujesh Yadav, Deepak Patel, Dharamraj Nishad and Suchismita Maurya managed to get the BJP ticket, while there are two candidates from the Brahmin category – Suresh Awasthi from Sisamau and Sanjeev Sharma from Ghaziabad. Rajput leader Ramveer Thakur is the BJP candidate for Kundarki, while the party has opted for a Dalit face: Surendra Diler from the Khair reserved seat. Apart from trying to balance the table in ticket distribution, the BJP’s focus on the OBC is also clearly visible.
3- 2007 as an experiment in the BSP candidate list
In 2007, the Mayawati-led BSP weaved such a web of social engineering that the party managed to form the government only with an absolute majority. From 2012 till now, the BSP has done many experiments, sometimes it tried to unite Dalits and Muslims and other times it tried to unite Dalits and backwards, but all the experiments of the party failed. Now the BSP seems to be returning to the Dalit-Brahmin formula of 2007. Of the eight candidates announced by the BSP the day before in the by-elections to nine seats, three were Brahmins, one Thakur, two Muslims and two from backward classes.
Also Read: UP by-elections: BJP plays OBC tactic in response to Akhilesh’s PDA card
BSP has given tickets to Deepak Tiwari from Majhwan seat of Mirzapur district, Parmanand Garg from Ghaziabad Sadar and Virendra Kumar Shukla from Sisamau seat. All three are Brahmin faces. The party has fielded a Thakur leader in the form of Jitendra Kumar Singh from Phulpur seat. The BSP has also gone for two Muslims – leaders like Rafatullah alias Chhidda from Mirapur, Shahnazar and Kundarki and two retrograde faces – Dr Avnish Kumar Shakya from Karhal and Amit Verma from Katehari.
