UP BJP to hold OBC conventions for school, college students

Lucknow : The Uttar Pradesh BJP has decided to hold OBC conventions for school and college students in an apparent bid to tap backward class youths as potential voters ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.

The group-specific youth meets is a first in the state’s recent political route.

BJP will soon be appointing conveners for the purpose at the state, district and divisional levels, according to the note, issued by UP minister and state BJP OBC Morcha chief Narendra Kashyap.

According to a draft note of BJP , the conventions would comprise at least 200 OBC students who will be informed not only about various state and central schemes but also the impact of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership on a global scale.

OBC morcha vice-president Chiranjeev Chaurasia maintained that the meets would aim to “invoke the spirit of nationalism” among youths from the backward sections.”

The development has triggered sharp reactions from the opposition, with Samajwadi Party spokesperson Sunil Singh Sajan terming it a manifestation of BJP’s “double standards”.

“Schools and colleges are places where students are taught about equality. But BJP is planning to stoke casteism and divide the society at its very foundations,” he said.

According to Sajan, the move also negates Prime Minister Modi’s oft-repeated narrative that there are just four castes in society — farmers, women, youths and poor.

“Why does BJP always accuse the opposition of being casteist? This again proves the ruling party itself seeks to stoke division of society based on caste,” Sajan alleged.

BJP has long slammed SP chief Akhilesh Yadav’s PDA (Pichhda, Dalit, Alpsankhyak) narrative, put forward in an apparent attempt to consolidate OBCs, Dalits and the minority community.

BJP organised OBC conventions in every UP district in the 2017 and 2022 Assembly polls and the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Nearly 23 OBC sub-caste sammelans were held in Lucknow alone.

The draft note of BJP also details a plan to consolidate sub-castes that number 20,000 or more in a district, stressing that doing so “is in the interests of the party”.