UP election results: For Congress, it's social engineering gone wrong

While it’s too early to say what went wrong for the Grand Old Party, one factor which certainly did not go right is the ‘caste arithmetic’. And in Uttar Pradesh, caste arithmetic is ’the’ factor. Congress’ strategy of relying on turncoats, including Samajwadi Party (SP) rebel Beni Prasad Verma, could not help the party in doubling its tally of 22 seats it won in the 2007 assembly polls. Congress got only one out of seven assembly seats in Barabanki district, represented by Kurmi leader Beni Prasad Verma in Lok Sabha. [caption id=“attachment_236432” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“For the grand old party, poaching has been futile. PTI”]  [/caption] In Gonda, another district dominated by OBCs, Congress could not manage even a single seat. Gonda is the Lok Sabha constituency of Congress leader PL Punia. Elsewhere too, SP rebels, could not galvanise votes. Among the SP rebels joining Congress, Vijay Pratap Gond (Dudhhi assembly seat), Urmila Yadav (Mainpuri) and Sishupal Singh Yadav (Etah) stand defeated. In Uttar Pradesh, Congress was not banking on upper caste Brahmins. And Dalits have been BSP loyalists. As such, Congress attempted to make OBCs  —placed above Dalits and below the upper castes, such as Thakurs and Brahamins, in the caste cauldron —  as its new core. All over Uttar Pradesh, the Congress gave more than 80 tickets to OBCs and most backward classes or MBCs, an exercise which stands futile now. The party gave Beni Prasad Verma, a Kurmi leader, free hand in distributing tickets, a move which was not liked by many in the party camp. Verma was expected to fetch the party OBC vote in Central and Eastern Uttar Pradesh. Verma gave 150 tickets to newcomers. SP rebel Rashid Masood was made member of the Congress Working Committee. Traditionally, OBCs, especially farmers and peasants, had a liking for Congress. With Jat leader Chaoudhary Charan Singh emerging as a voice of farmers, OBCs deserted Congress camp in the late 1960s. Had Rahul Gandhi succeeded in his attempts, it would have been the OBCs’ second-coming to the Congress camp. In fact, the pre-poll alliance with Charan Singh’s son and RLD leader Ajit Singh, was aimed at winning back the OBCs. But with the party winning just 38 out of 403 assembly seats, the social engineering seems to have gone wrong.