Caste and religion still form the bedrock of people’s political understanding in Uttar Pradesh | The Indian Express

Caste and religion still form the bedrock of people’s political understanding in Uttar Pradesh | The Indian Express

Written by Ashutosh Varshney |Updated: May 16, 2019 9:06:54 am

The writer is Sol Goldman Professor of International Studies and the Social Sciences at Brown University, where he also directs the Center for Contemporary South Asia at the Watson Institute. He is a contributing editor for The Indian Express.

Caste and religion still form the bedrock of people’s political understanding in Uttar Pradesh

In Uttar Pradesh, one can speak of two sub-waves, one among the upper castes, and another sweeping through the Dalit-Muslim-Yadav communities. The BJP is the primary beneficiary of the former, and the SP-BSP-RLD Mahagathbandhan of the latter.

As for the Muslims, they seemed so resolutely anti-BJP that their turnout should be larger than in 2014. (Express photo by Vishal Srivastav)

It is widely believed that Uttar Pradesh will determine who wins power on May 23. In 2014, if the BJP, instead of 71 seats, had won only 10 seats, as it did both in 2004 and 2009, it would still have formed the government, but in a substantially constraining alliance. Instead, a wave thrust Narendra Modi into power, and the alliance partners were reduced to political insignificance.