As Samajwadi Party (SP) released its first consolidated list of 159 candidates for the first two phases of Uttar Pradesh assembly elections after much immense speculation and a long wait, the party, this time, seems to be moving beyond its traditional Muslim-Yadav (MY) base, which had often voted along communal fault lines.
The list of contenders released for 114-odd seats in the first two phases of Western UP elections, starting February 10, includes 30 Muslims and 15 Yadavs. There are 48 non-Yadav OBC candidates, including seven Kurmis, four Nishads, four Gurjars and seven Jats. A full picture will, however, emerge only after the entire list for 403 assembly seats is declared.
In terms of women representation, the list cuts a sorry figure. Only 11 women, less than 7% of the total SP candidates, have been given the tickets. This, too, when women’s leadership and political participation had been made an election agenda by the Congress, which, however, has promised 40% tickets to women.
Although non-Yadav OBC and Dalit candidates for Western UP are significantly higher, their representation is likely to increase as the Samajwadi Party announces candidates for Central and Eastern UP where manifestation of Mandal or the caste-based identity politics has been traditionally more dominant.
The SP has also given tickets to 31 candidates from the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe community, however, almost all of them are in the reserved seats. Uttar Pradesh assembly has 84 seats reserved for the SC and STs.
In a bid to reach out to all communities this election, the Akhilesh Yadav-led SP has also announced candidates from the upper castes, which roughly comprise 15% of the overall population in the state. The first list has 19 upper caste candidates – eight Brahmins, five Thakurs and six Vaishyas.
The first list, however, comprises Muslim candidates, such as Nahid Hassan, who has been accused of orchestrating Hindu exodus in Kairana in 2016, and Azam Khan in Rampur and Abdullah Azam in Swar Tanda. The party has also fielded the Muslim candidates on all six seats in the Moradabad district. In the 2017 assembly polls, the SP-Congress alliance had together fielded around 85 Muslims across the state.
This time, the SP-Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) alliance in total has fielded 35 Muslims out of total 192 candidates declared by the alliance so far. The RLD is contesting 33 seats and has given tickets to five Muslim candidates.
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