Samajwadi Party's upper caste MLAs eyeing greener pastures in BJP

NEW DELHI: Several Samajwadi Party MLAs are in talks with the BJP in Uttar Pradesh for a possible defection, compounding problems for the Mulayam Singh Yadav-led ruling party which faced a debacle in the Lok Sabha polls at the hands of the resurgent BJP and has been in the grip of an increasing administrative and political problems in the state.

At least two sets of SP MLAs representing the upper caste groups of Brahmins and Thakurs have opened channels of communication with the BJP, senior leaders close to the development said. SP leaders, especially from Amethi and Faizabad, are in touch with senior leaders of RSS who have been stationed in the state to assist the party. The BJP considers Faizabad (where Ayodhya, the epicentre of its Ram Janmabhoomi movement, is located) as a prestige issue for itself. Amethi, too, is important as it is considered a Nehru-Gandhi pocket borough.

“Then there is another set of leaders hailing from the Thakur community who are in touch with senior leaders of the BJP,” said a BJP member. Many upper caste leaders had joined the SP in 2012 as a reaction to BSPchief Mayawati’s regime.

“While Mayawati had herself come to power on the sarva samaj plank of a Dalit-Brahmin combination, the extensive use of the SC/ST Act through her regime alienated most upper castes,” said one of the leaders familiar with the matter.