LUCKNOW: The consolidation of OBC leaders in practically all of the main political parties was a crucial factor in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, which ended on Thursday. The poll results, however, have revealed surprising outcomes, with a number of famous OBC leaders losing their seats.
Swami Prasad Maurya, a former BJP minister who led a revolt within the party in January and joined the Samajwadi Party, was the most shocking setback. Swami Prasad Maurya bit the dust in his Fazilnagar seat, when he was defeated by the BJP, ironically. Another BJP minister who had supported Maurya, Dharam Singh Saini, lost his seat in Saharanpur.
"The opposition tried to create confusion among the backward castes, but it was useless, and the community stood firm behind the BJP," said Narendra Kashyap, state BJP OBC Morcha chief.
The defeat of Uttar Pradesh's deputy chief minister, Keshav Prasad Maurya, comes as a shock to the BJP, which had presented him as the face of the state's OBC community. He had been campaigning hard for his party's candidate, going from one constituency to the next, but he lost his own Sirathu seat to Pallavi Patel of the Samajwadi Party.
Ram Govind Chaudhary, a senior Samajwadi Party (SP) politician and opposition leader, was also defeated in his Bansdih constituency.
Who will be the new 'Chief Minister' of Uttarakhand?
Muslims vote seems to be going unilaterally towards SP; Mayawati after winning only 1 seat
