SAPAKS Effect: Will Upper Castes Gain Upper Hand In State Politics?

BHOPAL: It was a photograph that set Madhya Pradesh’s political circles abuzz – chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan meeting former BJP minister Laxmikant Sharma, a key accused in the Vyapam scam, in Vidisha on September 22 after two years. It was followed by long meetings with Anup Mishra and Rakesh Chaturvedi.

The indication is clear: BJP seems all set to serenade marginalised Brahmins in the runup to perhaps the most closely fought elections in 15 years.

Political observers call it the ‘SAPAKS effect’.

BJP’s Brahmin leaders are coming in from the cold as caste wars hot up for the 2018 election. While Sharma was out of party affairs for more than two years (the CM had distanced himself from the former minister who had spent some time in Bhopal central jail), both Chaturvedi, a former Congressman who had dramatically switched sides, and Morena MP Anup Mishra were -- to quote a senior BJP functionary --“forgotten by the party”. Until SAPAKS showed up on the political horizon and changed MP’s political scene.


Suddenly, the ruling BJP was scrambling to appease the upper castes. Barely two days before the model code of conduct come into force last Saturday, CM Chouhan announced a 300% hike in honorarium of 52,000 priests.

Will BJP’s overtures be enough? No, says Hiralal Trivedi, president of the newly formed SAPAKS Samaj Party that has vowed to contest all 230 seats – including reserved SC ones where the general caste and OBC electorate overwhelms SC and ST voters. “This is not going to change the scene. The main issue is not amendment of the SC/ ST Protection Act and the issue of reservation in promotion. We have 64% people with us. They include Samanya (general category, including Brahmins and Thakurs), Pichda (backward classes) and Alpsankhyak (minorities) with us. And we will form the government,” he says. It is after the SAPAKS rally of Brahmins in Ujjain last month that BJP looked concerned.

Though SAPAKS took both BJP and Congress by surprise and disrupted their equations, BJP is more vocal in talking about the newly formed political outfit. It has more to lose as Brahmins have traditionally been part of its support base.