‘OBCs dominate BJP, Brahmins not given adequate representation according to their population in UP’

Amidst the political tussle following the meeting of the BJP’s Brahmin MLAs in Uttar Pradesh, representatives from the organisation and the government indicate that the position of Brahmins within the party and the government is still not as strong as it should be.

This claim, however, comes from some office-bearers and MPs within the organisation. According to them, Brahmins have been systematically marginalised in the government and the organisation.

Advertisement

A sitting MP from Uttar Pradesh, speaking to this reporter, said, “The BJP’s organisational structure clearly shows the dominance of the OBC community. Twelve OBC leaders hold key positions in the state unit, including State President Pankaj Chaudhary and Organisation General Secretary Dharampal Singh. The fact that both the State President and the Organisation General Secretary are OBCs gives them dominance not only in numerical strength but also institutional strength.”

A state office-bearer of the organisation, speaking on condition of anonymity, said, “The Yogi government’s council of ministers has 20 ministers from the OBC community, which is approximately 37 per cent of the total. This is considered significant representation given the OBC population in the state. However, the total Brahmin population in Uttar Pradesh is around 12 to 14 per cent, but they have not been given adequate representation in either the organisation or the government.”

The state office-bearer said that Brahmins have been an important part of the BJP’s political structure and symbolic politics since the early 1990s, especially after the Ram Mandir movement.

The way Brahmins are being politically targeted could harm the party in the next assembly elections.” The issue recently resurfaced when nearly four dozen Brahmin MLAs attended a meeting called by BJP Brahmin MLA P N Pathak. The newly appointed state president, Pankaj Chaudhary, publicly criticised this meeting.

According to party sources, this meeting reflects the growing concerns among Brahmin leaders regarding their share of power, especially at a time when some leaders from the Thakur and OBC communities have also been holding caste-based meetings.

According to data, seven of the 45 key organisational office-bearers in the Uttar Pradesh BJP are from the Thakur community, representing approximately 15 per cent of the total. The number of Thakurs and Brahmins in the Yogi Adityanath cabinet is also roughly equal. Seven of the 54 ministers are from the Thakur community. Numerically, Thakurs are not more in numbers than Brahmins in either the organisation or the cabinet.

However, political experts believe that this near-equal representation between Brahmins and Thakurs is part of the BJP’s deliberate strategy to prevent any resentment from developing between the two upper castes. This maintains a balance of power within the party, ensuring that no community feels neglected.

Among other upper castes, the Vaishya community has seven organisational office-bearers, while the Bhumihar community has two representatives. The cabinet includes five ministers from the Vaishya community and two from the Bhumihar community.

Eight leaders from the Dalit community hold key positions in the BJP organisation, representing approximately 18 per cent. However, this is slightly less than the state’s approximately 20 per cent Scheduled Caste population. The cabinet includes seven ministers from the Dalit community, representing about 13 per cent of the total ministers.

Experts say that these figures clearly show that the BJP has made its organisational leadership OBC-centric while simultaneously attempting to maintain social and political cohesion by balancing the representation of upper castes. On the other hand, Brahmins constitute approximately 12 to 14 per cent of the electorate in Uttar Pradesh, but they have not received proportionate representation.