In a bid to woo voters in the poll-bound Uttar Pradesh, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will hold the caste-based conventions in the state in the next two months, said sources on Saturday.
"BJP is now going to hold a caste-based convention to solve the caste equations in the elections in Uttar Pradesh. As many as 200 conferences of small castes will be held in the entire state. These conferences will start from Navratri and run till the end of November," said sources.
Notably, there are 79 castes that constitute the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in Uttar Pradesh, while there are 66 scheduled castes (SCs) and sub-castes.
Many castes like Nishads, Yadavs, Sainis, Kurmis, Lodhs, Prajapati, Rajbhars, Maurya, Saini, Teli, and Kushwahas among the OBCs and Valmikis, Jatavs, Koris and Pasis are among the SCs that dominate the vote shares of many constituencies.
According to sources, conventions will be held in the constituencies on the basis of which castes dominate the voting percentage in that assembly seat.
"In the assembly in which the caste has influence, a conference of that caste will be held in that assembly," said the sources.
Apart from the caste-based conventions, the sources said BJP will also try to induct the influential people of such castes and sub-castes who do not belong to any political party.
"All state level and national party leaders belonging to these castes will also participate in these programmes," they added.
Sources further informed that all the leaders like Union Minister Bhupendra Yadav, former Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghuvar Das, party leaders Sushil Modi, SP Baghel, Kaushal Kishor, and State President Swatantra Dev Singh will be entrusted with the responsibility of organising the conferences of their respective castes.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath will also address several conferences, they added.
Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh is due in 2022.
In the 2017 Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, the Bharatiya Janata Party bagged 312 seats out of the 403-seat Uttar Pradesh Assembly while Samajwadi Party (SP) bagged 47 seats, Bahujan Samajwadi Party (BSP) won 19 and Congress could manage to win only seven seats.
( With inputs from ANI )
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