THE KURMI FACTOR

It all started last September after Janata Dal (United) president Lalan Singh said in an interview that the people of Uttar Pradesh wanted Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar to champion their cause in the Lok Sabha.

- Prashant Srivastava

About two months ago, that spark caught fire among members of his community, the Kurmis—the second-largest grouping after the Yadavs among the OBC community in the state. Soon, almost every media outlet was speculating about how the Bihar CM would contest the Phulpur Lok Sabha seat as a candidate of the opposition ‘INDIA’ alliance in 2024. The state’s main Opposition, the Samajwadi Party (SP) and a Kurmi consolidation, the  Apna Dal (K), also endorsed the idea.

Phulpur, in eastern UP, is considered a Kurmi-dominated seat. It was said that if Nitish was to decide to contest from here, it would set the tone for the Opposition in UP, which sends 80 MPs to the Lok Sabha. The Kurmis, who reportedly make up around 8 per cent of the state’s population, could influence the result in at least two dozen LS seats.