Eyeing Brahmin votes in Uttar Pradesh, BJP sets up 4-member outreach panel

Vibha Sharma

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, December 28

Senior Brahmin leaders of the Uttar Pradesh BJP met party president JP Nadda yesterday to plan a counter strategy against Samajwadi Party’s big ‘Brahmin outreach’ ahead of the upcoming Assembly elections in the state.

The attendees included Rajya Sabha member Shiv Pratap Shukla, Noida MP Mahesh Sharma and state ministers Brajesh Pathak, Srikant Sharma, Satish Dwivedi, Chandrika Prasad Upadhyay and Anand Swaroop Shukla.

Earlier, the leaders also met the party’s UP election in-charge Dharmendra Pradhan where a committee was drawn for the outreach to the politically significant community, which is believed to be upset with Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath over “his preferential treatment to Thakurs”, the community he belongs to.

The four-member committee aims to dispel “confusion being spread among Brahmins by the Samajwadi Party and the BSP that the BJP is neglecting their community”.

The leaders have been asked to meet reputed Brahmin faces and influencers from different walks of life and inform them about the work being done by the party for their betterment, like 10% reservation for general category, construction of Ram temple in Ayodhya, Brahmin ministers in the Centre and the state, MLAs and MPs from the community, social security, etc. “The committee will take the work done to the public and impress upon them the reality that it is actually the BJP which has worked for the Brahmins,” leaders said.

While the BJP appears to be in a tight spot regarding the community, sources claim the Brahmin ministers and legislators are “also not too happy over the treatment meted out to them by Adityanath in the past five years”. Sources, in fact, claimed that several leaders also poured their hearts out over Adityanath “ignoring” them in their meetings with the Central leadership.

Brahmins comprise a sizable percentage of votes and are also a significant community in terms of influence beyond their actual numbers.

Several leaders from the community in eastern UP also recently switched to the Samajwadi Party.

To publicise welfare measures

• The four-member committee aims to dispel ‘confusion being spread among Brahmins by the Samajwadi Party and the BSP that the BJP is neglecting their community’
• Leaders asked to meet influencers and inform them about the work being done by the party for their betterment, like 10% reservation for general category