LS polls: Small parties have big stakes in UP

Lucknow: They are small parties and many of them do not even have a presence outside Uttar Pradesh. Yet, for most of them, these elections have high stakes because their future in UP politics depends on their performance in these elections.

These smaller parties are caste-centric groups and the BJP plans to earn the support of their respective caste groups in the polls.

To begin with, the Rashtriya Lok Dal which recently snapped ties with Samajwadi Party and joined the BJP-led NDA, is working overtime to ensure success in the polls so that it can consolidate its relationship with the BJP.

The RLD, a Jat-centric party -- has been given two seats in UP -- Baghpat and Bijnor.

The BJP mainly allied with RLD to strengthen its position in western UP.

RLD chief Jayant Chaudhary, on the other hand, is also said to be eyeing a berth in the union cabinet as he had managed a Rajya Sabha seat during his alliance with SP.

The RLD has nine members in the state assembly.

The Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) is another party that prides itself on its following among the Rajbhar community.

The SBSP, which has six legislators in the UP assembly, has been given the Ghosi Lok Sabha seat and its president Om Prakash Rajbhar has fielded his son Arvind Rajbhar on the seat.

Om Prakash Rajbhar is known as a troublemaker. He created trouble for BJP in 2019 and quit the alliance to join SP. After the 2022 assembly polls, Rajbhar made uncalled-for statements against the SP and snapped ties.

He laboured for several months before the BJP finally took him back into the fold.

Ghosi will now decide the extent of influence he wields over the Rajbhar community.

The Apna Dal (S) is one of the BJP's most trusted allies in Uttar Pradesh. The Apna Dal (S), led by union minister Anupriya Patel, contested and won two seats, both in 2014 and 2019. The Apna Dal (S), according to sources, is seeking four seats but the BJP is willing to give only two seats. The seats have not yet been announced.

The Apna Dal (S), is a Kurmi -centric party and has been instrumental in helping the BJP expand its base among non-Yadav OBCs.

The Nishad Party, which claims to be the custodian of the riverine community in the state, is still clamouring for an entry into the parliament on its own symbol.

Party president Sanjay Nishad insists that his vote bank has an influence over 27 Lok Sabha seats but the BJP, as of now, is in no mood to give seats to the Nishad Party.

Sanjay Nishad's son Parveen Nishad is a sitting MP from Sant Kabir Nagar on a BJP ticket and the party has again named him as its candidate for 2024 polls.

The Apna Dal (K), a breakaway faction of Apna Dal (S) is now placed on nowhere land. Led by Krishna Patel, the party snapped ties with Samajwadi Party over seat sharing, expressed its desire to join the NDA and finally ended up in alliance with AIMIM.

The party's future is a matter of speculation because the lone MLA, Pallavi Patel, was elected in 2022 on a SP symbol.

Some other smaller parties like Azad Samaj Party, led by Chandra Shekhar, Jansatta Dal led by Raghuraj Pratap Singh a.k.a. Raja Bhaiyya and Swami Prasad Maurya's Rashtriya Shoshit Samaj Party are contesting on their own without support from bigger parties.