Lucknow: With strong indications of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar likely to contest the 2024 parliamentary election from Uttar Pradesh, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is trying to consolidate its position among the Kurmi community.
The Kurmi and Yadav are the two dominant castes among the OBCs in UP, and with the latter firmly behind the Samajwadi Party, the BJP has decided to woo the former.
BJP appoints Rekha Verma as vice-president for 2nd term
In the recently announced list of BJP national office-bearers, the party has reposed its faith in Rekha Verma and appointed her vice-president for the second term. Rekha Verma is a Member of Parliament from the Dhourahra constituency in UP and has a good number of followers in the Kurmi community, especially in central UP. Besides, the party is also trying to lure Pallavi Patel, a sitting legislator of the Samajwadi alliance in UP. Pallavi is the daughter of the late Kurmi Icon Dr. Sonelal Patel and runs a faction of Apna Dal (Kamerawadi). The other sister, Anupriya Patel, is already with the BJP, having a decade-old alliance.
Kurmi votes in UP
In UP, there are about 8 to 9 percent voters from the Kurmi community, and in the 2022 assembly elections, a faction of it had allied with the Samajwadi Party. With Samajwadi Party Chief Akhilesh Yadav inviting Bihar CM Nitish Kumar to contest the 2024 general election from the Phulpur seat in UP, the BJP is worried about further division in the Kurmi vote bank.
According to senior UP BJP leaders, to preempt any division among Kurmi votes, the party has retained Rekha Verma as the national vice-president. Besides, it might induce a few prominent leaders of this community from other parties in the days to come. While the BJP leaders are non-committal about Pallavi Patel joining them, insiders said she has been approached recently with an offer of a ministerial berth in Yogi's Cabinet.
Political analyst T.B Singh said Yadav and Kurmi votes among OBCs are most important for winning any election in UP. He said that the consolidation of Kurmi votes had played a major role in the BJP’s victory in the 2014 & 2019 LS and the 2017 & 2022 assembly polls. "With opposition parties coming together and wooing backwards, it is important for the BJP to keep its focus on Kurmis," he said.
