Has the Opposition walked into the BJP trap by fielding former Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar against Ram Nath Kovind? In the recent assembly polls in UP, the saffron party had gained immensely by drawing a wedge between non-Jatavs and the dominant Jatav sub-caste aligned with the Bahujan Samaj Party. The other OBCs and most backward communities were similarly mobilized against the Yadavs broadly committed to the Samajwadi Party. The nuclear (caste) families emerging from these fragmentations and cross-bonded by Hindutva bolstered the BJP’s social base. What gave Kovind’s candidature an extra-edge in the BJP’s scheme was the Koli community’s substantial presence in Maharashtra and Gujarat.

Source: Hindustan Times June 23, 2017 02:03 UTC