Lok Sabha Polls 2014: Right caste fit remains crucial to win elections

NEW DELHI: BJP would like us to believe that its landslide victory is a result of people rising above caste and community to vote for development. In some ways, it is right, but that is too simplistic an explanation.

An analysis of poll results in UP and Bihar, which won the NDA 104 seats, shows that BJP has not just been successful in driving home the image of Modi as the "development man" but has been equally careful in keeping caste in mind in choosing candidates.

According to the poll data, BJP fielded 14 Brahmins, 15 Thakurs, 21 OBCs and 17 Dalits among other castes in UP. In most of its choices, it tasted a success rate of over 90 per cent. Of its 17 Dalit candidates, none lost - one of the reasons being cited for Mayawati's rout in the elections.

It did not field a single Muslim candidate, while BSP, SP and Congress fielded 19 and 13 and 11 respectively. Each one of them lost.

SP, BSP and Congress kept the caste equation in mind fielding proportionate numbers from various castes in different seats. The only big differences were in case of Yadavs and OBCs. While SP fielded 11 Yadavs and won 5 - all from Mulayam Singh Yadav's family - BJP fielded only one and lost.

In Bihar, too, caste equations seem to have played a role in candidate selection. BJP fielded three to seven candidates belonging to various castes including Brahmins, Rajputs, Bhumihars, Yadavs, OBCs, Dalits and extremely backward castes.

Except in the case of Rajputs, OBCs and EBCs, the winning percentage of BJP's other caste candidates was 100 per cent. BJP leaders have always said that their only criterion of choosing a candidate is his 'win-ability'. But isn't caste one of the criteria of deciding 'win-ability'?