Last Tuesday, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav sealed an alliance with Om Prakash Rajbhar’s Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP), a former BJP ally.  In the 2017 Assembly polls, out of the 325 seats in the 403-member House won by the BJP and its allies, the SBSP had won four after contesting in eight. Then BJP chief Amit Shah had held a rally with Rajbhar in Mau in the run-up to the 2017 polls, something that Akhilesh Yadav did on Tuesday.  

The Rajbhar community accounts for an estimated 3-4 per cent of UP’s population. This may be a small proportion, but the fact that the community is concentrated in eastern UP — which means a higher proportion of the population in that region — gives it the potential to sway several seats in the upcoming elections. Besides, the SBSP’s support base is not restricted just to the Rajbhar community, but also extends to other Most Backward Classes (MBCs) such as Chauhan, Pal, Prajapati, Vishwakarma, Bhar, Mallah, and Vishwakarma. 

Out of 90 seats in eastern UP’s 18 districts, there are around 25-30 constituencies where Rajbhars are high in number, including up to 1 lakh in some of them. In its near-sweep of the state, the BJP gained significantly in eastern UP, growing from 14 seats in 2012 to 72 in 2017, while the SP slipped from 52 to 9. 

The SBSP itself claims that its influence spreads wider, covering 150 seats, and that the alliance helped the NDA win 146 of these seats.  The SP has already forged an alliance with the Mahan Dal Party, which is another party that addresses the Backward Classes, and is headed by Keshav Dev Maurya.