Confident that the Bahujan Samaj Party has lost the support of its traditional vote bank, Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) partner Samajwadi Party has decided to focus its attention on the Lok Sabha constituencies reserved for the Schedule Caste. The SP, with its social coalition of PDA (Pichhda, Dalit, Alpsankhyak) feels that the reserved Lok Sabha seats are crucial for checking the march of the Bharatiya Janata Party in Uttar Pradesh. There are 17 reserved parliamentary constituencies in the state and the BJP had won 15 of them in the 2019 polls, losing Nagina and Lalganj seats to the BSP, which had contested the polls in alliance with the SP. In 2014, the BJP had won all the reserved Lok Sabha seats in the state while in the 2004 polls it had managed to win only three reserved seats in UP. The BSP had then won five reserved seats and the SP had won the maximum seven seats. BSPs performance on the reserved Lok Sabha seats has since been miserable and the party has not been able to maintain its grip on its core vote bank of Dalits in the state though it did manage to form the government in the state in 2007 assembly polls, winning 61 of the 86 reserved seats. The saffron partys aim to maintain its hold on the reserved seats became evident when as many as nine Dalits ministers were inducted in Yogi Adityanath-led council of ministers after the BJP won the 2022 Assembly polls. Interestingly, the one minister who was inducted from the Rashtriya Lok Dal (quota in the state cabinet last month after the RLD joined the National Democratic Alliance also comes from the Dalit community. In the 2022 UP assembly polls, the BJP had won 65 reserved seats and formed its government in the state. In 2017, the saffron part had fared even better on the reserved seats, winning a whopping 71 of them. Interestingly, in the 2012 assembly elections, the SP had won 58 reserved seats and formed its government in the state. It is quite evident that the party which wins the maximum number of reserved seats forms the government in UP. The population of Dalits is around 29 per cent in the state and the voters from the community are the deciding factors not only on the reserved seats but also on many other seats and therefore it is not surprising that all the major political players are trying every trick to woo them. While the BJP has deployed its Dalit ministers and legislators to ensure success on the reserved seats and also elsewhere, the SP-Congress alliance is banking on the PDA formula to deliver in the polls. The SP had embarked on a PDA Yatra in the state a few months back. The BJP government in the state has sanctioned Y plus security for firebrand Dalit leader and Bhim Army president Chandrashekhar alias Ravan in an apparent bid to give the message that it is sensitive to the interests of the community. Chandrashekhar is in the fray as an independent candidate from Nagina reserved seat this time.  

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