Non-Yadav OBCs will play an important role in the 13 Lok Sabha seats going to polls in the last phase in Uttar Pradesh on June 1.

All these 13 seats are from Purvanchal region and in the 2019 elections, BJP won 9 out of 13 seats, while its ally Apna Dal (S) won two seats and BSP won two seats.

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According to the reports and views of the political experts in these 13 seats where voting is going to be held in the last phase of Lok Sabha elections, the population of non-Yadav backward castes including Kurmi, Kushwaha, Rajbhar, Bind, Chauhan, Pal, Prajapati and Nishad is more than that of Yadavs. Therefore, these castes play a big role in making or breaking the electoral equation on these seats.

Therefore, in the seventh phase of elections, there will be a fight between NDA and INDIA to get non-Yadav OBC votes for their respective gains.

Keeping this equation in mind, the ruling party and the opposition have fielded candidates from these castes on many seats. There are seven out of 13 seats in the seventh phase, where NDA and India have fielding non-Yadav OBC faces. Among these, there are three on which non-Yadav OBC faces are face to face.

There are candidates from Kurmi, Bind, Kushwaha and Rajbhar castes on these seats. While out of 4 seats, NDA has bet on Kurmi and Nishad on two seats, Indi alliance has also done the same on two seats. While BJP is trying to settle its equation with the help of non-Yadav OBCs, the same Indi alliance is also trying to draw a big line with the help of its cadre votebank Yadavs and Muslims as well as non-Yadav OBCs.

Non Yadav OBC face to face on these three seats are:

Mirzapur: Union ministerAnupriya Patel (Apna Dal-S) and Ramesh Bind (SP)

Salempur: Ravindra Kushwaha (BJP) and Ramashankar Rajbhar (SP).

Maharajganj:Union minister Pankaj Chaudhary (BJP) and Virendra Chaudhary (SP).

This time BJP is contesting on 10 out of 13 seats in the final phase and has allies on three seats. Apna Dal (S) is contesting on two seats, while Om Prakash Rajbhar’s party is contesting on one seat. At the same time, on behalf of Indi Alliance, SP is trying its electoral luck on 9 seats and Congress on 4 seats. BSP is contesting elections on all 13 seats.

The elections in this phase seem to be entirely based on caste, with political tussle for OBC votes as well. Apart from this, both BJP and SP are also trying to woo the Dalit vote bank of BSP. The political path can be easy for the one who is successful in solving the caste equation of Purvanchal.