UP Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya
FOCUSSING ON OBC voters, especially Yadavs, the BJP is set to felicitate nearly 15,000 members belonging to backward classes as part of its one-month-long ‘Pichhda Varg Pratibha Samman Samaroh’, beginning August 15. The party’s 92 district organisational units in Uttar Pradesh have been tasked with organising the event and identifying those who have done significant work in various fields. The programme will be part of the ongoing Deendayal Upadhyay birth centenary celebrations.
While there are more than two dozen backward classes in UP, the party is focusing on Yadavs — the Samajwadi Party’s votebank. The BJP had organised 200 pichhda varg sammelans last year to attract OBC voters before the UP elections. “We had then focused on non-Yadavs, But now, we are giving stress on Yadavs,” said Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya.
After BJP president Amit Shah had lunch along with CM Yogi Adityanath at the house of party booth president Sonu Yadav, district units have also started hosting lunches or dinners, preferably in the homes of Yadav workers, to mark Upadhyay’s birth centenary. In his address to districts presidents during his recent visit to Lucknow, Shah asked them to start a campaign to connect the BJP with Yadav and Jatav voters.
On Wednesday, BJP state general secretary (organisation) Sunil Bansal had lunch in the home of booth president Shiva Yadav during his visit to Gonda district. “People who… could be an inspiration to others will be honoured. With this, BJP will associate them with the party,” said Amarpal Maurya, BJP state secretary and in-charge of the event.
