Battlefield Uttar Pradesh: How non-Yadav OBCs have thrown their weight behind BJP

The Lokniti-CSDS survey data suggest massive gains for the BJP cutting across OBC sub-groups whether it is Yadavs, Kurmis, Koeris or others. However, it is the smaller communities that have supported the saffron camp wholeheartedly.

When it comes to elections in Uttar Pradesh, every major contender is in search of that perfect caste cocktail. Caste loyalties impact the electoral outcome in a major way, making it inseparable from politicking in India’s most populous state. Back in the 1980s and 1990s, the BJP reaped rich electoral benefits out of the Mandal-Kamandal combination. While ‘Kamandal’ has remained part of its core ideology, renewed demands for a caste census in recent days have brought to the fore the underlying significance of identity politics in the Hindi heartland.