How to crack UP's reserved seat puzzle

THE 17 reserved seats - the constituencies in which seats are reserved for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes based on the size of their population have a different flavour in the political landscape of Uttar Pradesh.

- NAMITA BAJPAI Lucknow

The strategy to win them in elections is charted differently because these seats are won not on national issues. Basic needs of life matter more than symbols and narratives available outside. The parties capable of getting traction on the ground emerge victorious as these 17 seats make the foundation of the outcome of the rest of DE 63 Lok Sabha constituencies of the most crucial state of Hindi heartland.

The BJP seems have got its formula right, wining most reserved seats in the last two Lok Sabha polls. In 2014, the party's strike rate was almost cent per cent; it lost two of 17 to Bahujan Samaj Party, which claims to have the strongest presence among Dalits, in 2019.

These 17 seats reserved for Scheduled Castes in UP are Nagina, Bulandshahr, Hathras,