New Delhi: Nitish Kumar's Bihar formula of social engineering seems to have caught up the Congress' imagination in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh, where Rahul Gandhi is leading the campaign to revive fortunes of the party.
The party is not only promising sub-quota for Most Backward Classes (MBC) in government jobs, educational institutions and Panchayats in UP but also special focus on "Ati-Dalits" (extremely deprived) and exploring a sub-quota for them.
Sources in the party said the list of Congress candidates this time is an ideal mix of all castes in which the MBCs and Ati Dalits have got "liberal representation".
In Bihar, Nitish Kumar rode to power by denting the OBC vote bank of Lalu Prasad and Dalit vote bank of Ram Vilas Paswan by separating the Extremely Backward Castes from the OBC category and driving out Mahadalits, a group of 20 odd castes from the Dalits or the Scheduled Castes.
The new social engineering by Nitish Kumar virtually reduced the support base of Lalu Prasad and Ramvilas Paswan to the dominant OBC caste Yadav and the aggressive Dalit caste Paswan bringing a large number small sub castes from OBCs and Dalits under the umbrella of JD-U.
Kumar government had also constituted separate commissions to suggest measures to improve the lot of these "left out" castes not enjoying the benefits of reservation.
In Uttar Pradesh, Mulayam Singh Yadav, an OBC leader has his sway among the Yadavs while Mayawati's core constituency is Jatavs among the Dalits.
Although, Congress has also not given up efforts to woo the two castes (Yadavs and Jatavs), it is going extra mile to make inroads into the smaller groups among OBCs and Dalits.
The induction of a close associate of Mulayam Singh Yadav and former Union Minister Beni Prasad Verma in Congress just before the 2009 Lok Sabha election was a step in that direction.
Verma, who belonged to Kurmi caste, subsequently became a MoS and then elevated cabinet rank in Union Council of ministers keeping in mind the UP polls. Similarly, the Congress also inducted PL Puniya, a one time bureaucrat and close associate of Mayawati before the 2009 Lok Sabha elections. Puniya, a Dalit face, is currently Congress MP from Barabanki and the Chairman of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes.
He has recently been assigned along with a young Dalit face in the party Ashok Tanwar to look after the party's poll strategy in all 85 reserved seats of the state along with four other seats, where Congress has fielded candidates from the Scheduled castes.
The state has 22 per cent Dalits of which the majorities are Jatavs, the community to which the BSP chief Mayawati belongs to. The Congress appears to be adopting a two- pronged strategy of making every effort to wean non- Jatavs away from the BSP and trying to split Jatavs to reduce the strike rate of BJP.
There have also been requests to Rahul Gandhi from non-Jatav Dalit leaders of the state to hold a rally of non-Jatav Dalits in Lucknow. In their earlier meetings with Gandhi, they had also complained that non-Jatav Dalits have been ignored by Mayawati who has been promoting her community alone.
Congress is also hopeful of good support among the weaver community for which Rahul Gandhi's efforts had ensured a special package.
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