2024 Lok Sabha polls: BJP virtually triumphs over caste politics

NEW DELHI: With the impressive victory in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, the BJP seems to have virtually triumphed over the politics of caste ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

The BJP’s experiment with the welfare of “Yuva, Mahila, Kisan and Garib” has paid its political dividends in the three states of the Hindi heartland. And the road ahead for the party now looks easy with its continuous attempts to bring various castes under an umbrella of “class politics”, with the help of the welfare schemes launched by the Modi government.

While recently interacting with beneficiaries of the schemes at the Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra, Prime Minister Narendra Modi highlighted the combination of four - “Youth, Women, Farmers and Poor” - as “the biggest castes”.


Although the Congress remains a major political player in these three states, the poll results brought disappointment in the entire opposition camp, which has been pushing for caste census ahead of the 2024 LS polls. The issue was put to political test in the assembly polls after the Bihar government conducted its own caste survey and increased the quota for OBCs, SCs and STs.

The Congress was trying to woo OBC voters by promising to conduct caste census in the three states during its poll campaign. As things stand today, the Congress is left nowhere despite its attempts to associate with the Mandal politics, of which it is a victim.

The BJP, meanwhile, focused on its welfare schemes and the party organisation engaged its workers - right from the booth to the state levels - to highlight the fast delivery of the benefits, which they called “Modi Ki Guarantee”.

The poll results show that the schemes of the BJP government, such as Ujjwala, Saubhagya, PM Kisan Samman Nidhi, PM Awas Yojana, Lakhpati Didi scheme, fertiliser subsidy, MUDRA, PM Garib Kalyan Yojana and Swachh Bharat played a vital role in stopping the caste census from becoming an important political issue among voters.

BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh also launched its own welfare schemes. The Ladly Behna scheme of the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government has worked in favour of it in this election.

The schemes, of which beneficiaries are from every caste, apparently helped the BJP to politically unite the socially backward and economically poor at the ground level in its favour.

Moreover, the party also undertook a massive exercise before giving the final shape to the list of its candidates, keeping in mind the caste equations of the assembly constituencies. Thus, the caste-line could not work in favour of the opposition camp in the three states.