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 aggresive 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.
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