Future not bright for parties relying only on caste

Published: 26th June 2019 04:00 AM

Samajwadi Party President Akhilesh Yadav, BSP supremo Mayawati and RLD chief Ch Ajit Singh along with other leaders wave at the supporters during their joint election campaign rally at Deoband in Saharanpur. (File | PTI)

Ever since the Lok Sabha election results started coming in on May 23, questions began to be asked about the future of the Uttar Pradesh mahagathbandhan, or grand alliance. That is because the mahagathbandhan between the BSP, SP and Jat leader Ajit Singh’s RLD, was not performing to the much-anticipated and desired script.

Based on the caste and community configuration of the state, and the caste-based voting pattern of its voters, most political pundits had predicted that the alliance would win about 45-50 seats of the 80 up for grabs. But as it turned out, the mahagathbandhan managed to win a mere 15, with the BSP and the SP getting 10 and five seats respectively. This not only dented their pride but given BSP leader Mayawati’s mercurial character, it was clear that the alliance would not last as it had not delivered the desired results. The first indication of the split came barely two weeks after the elections, when Mayawati declared that her party would contest the upcoming by-elections in the state on its own. On Monday, she put the final nail in the alliance’s coffin.

Post-poll analyses showed that the Jats, who have a significant presence in western UP, did not vote for the alliance. But more importantly, a consolidation of the Yadav, Jatav and non-Jatav Dalit votes did not happen as expected in favour of the BSP. In other words, the Yadavs, the main vote bank of the SP, did not vote for BSP candidates. In contrast, Jatavs, the core voters of the BSP, supported SP candidates wherever they were the joint nominee. This perhaps prompted the BSP supremo to walk out of the alliance.

While Mayawati may have taken the right decision from her viewpoint, the 2019 election showed that the future is not bright for caste-based political parties. While in UP, the SP-BSP performed poorly, in Bihar the RJD, whose main vote base is the Yadavs and Muslims, failed to win a single seat. This is a welcome development. Parties with sectional interests should remain fringe players in the interest of India’s polity.