Other States - Uttar Pradesh

Kurmis come into their own
By Neena Vyas

VARANASI, FEB. 14. The Kurmis are finally coming into their own in Uttar Pradesh. The Yadavs have their Samajwadi Party, the Jatavs have the Bahujan Samaj Party, the Brahmins and the Thakurs and the Baniyas identify with the Bharatiya Janata Party, then why not the Apna Dal for the Kurmis?

This upwardly mobile backward caste has seen how the fruits of political power are being enjoyed by the Yadavs and the Jatavs, and they are focussing hard on organising themselves into a solid votebank behind their leader, Sonelal Patel, the man who was with the BSP till a few years ago and is now heading his own Apna Dal.

``When Nitish Kumar was not able to win in Bihar, few people realised that the Apna Dal played an important role. We had fought 200 seats in the last Bihar Assembly elections, and everywhere we were able to cut into the Kurmi support base of Mr. Kumar,'' the Varanasi district president of Apna Dal, Kanhailal Rajbhar, emphasised.

And everywhere in eastern Uttar Pradesh which will go to the polls on February 21, there are clear indications that the Kurmis are indeed moving away from the BSP or the BJP to consolidate behind the Apna Dal, much to the delight of the SP.

In Varanasi, the Kurmis often voted for the BJP, but this time with the Apna Dal contesting six of the seven seats in this district, the chances are that a large chunk of the four- lakh strong Kurmi population will vote for their own party.

Mr. Rajbhar claims that after Sonelal Patel left the BSP, many others followed. Om Prakash Rajbhar, district president of the BSP in Varanasi, followed suit, as did Subhash Sonkar, a BSP zila parishad president, and scores of others. ``Do not underestimate us,'' he said sharply when it was suggested that the Apna Dal was likely to play the role of a spoiler rather than win a substantial number of seats. ``Ten of the 20 members of the district board in Varanasi are Apna Dal members.''

The new party is unambiguous about who it wants to represent. ``We have not given any ticket to Brahmins or Thakurs. We want this party to represent the pichda varga (backward castes) the Dalits and the Muslims, and we want them to come together.'' Unlike the BSP which has 93 Brahmin and Thakur candidates, the Apna Dal has none. Apne bhi suna hoga ki BSP ke ticket beche gaye, janta bewakoof nahin hai (you must have heard that the BSP auctioned its ticket to the highest bidder, the people are not foolish).''

And in Varanasi it hopes to make a dent since the big man, Sonelal Patel, is himself contesting one of the rural seats, Kolasla. This is expected to affect the Kurmi vote in the entire region.

The Apna Dal is very much where the BSP was some years ago. Its slogan is social reform. No mandir-masjid politics, no ``abuse'' of forward castes, one education system for all, and chief minister from different castes rotating every two years. ``We want the chief ministership to go to a Kurmi, a Dalit, and others from the pichda varga by rotation. It is in our manifesto,'' Mr. Rajbhar emphasised.

And it is being conceded that the presence of the Apna Dal, almost everywhere in eastern U.P., will affect the electoral fortunes of the BSP and the BJP. How much is anyone's guess. It helped Laloo Prasad Yadav in Bihar, will it help Mulayam Singh Yadav here?

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