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Apparently cornered in caste based identity politics from multiple quarters  -- Brahmin, Rajput, Nishad and Muslims, the Samajwadi party has decided to organise a convention of the Brahmin community ahead of next year’s UP assembly elections.
The SP will hold its first Brahmin convention in Ballia on August 23. The battle of one-upmanship between the two Nishad community based parties in UP and Bihar -- Nishad Party and Vikassheel Insaan Party -- has put the Samajwadi party in a fix. Both the Nishad based parties are allies of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Sources in SP said though Mulayam Singh Yadav had given ticket to Phoolan Devi after her release from jail and she was elected twice to the Lok Sabha, it would be difficult for the party to woo the Nishad community as it may antagonise the Rajput community. Phoolan Devi, from Nishad community had hit the headlines after she led the massacre of the Thakur community members in Behmai village of Kanpur Dehat in 1981.
By deciding to organise the Brahmin convention, the Samajwadi Party is forced to toe the line set by the Bahujan Samaj Party, which has already organised first such convention in Ayodhya on July 23.  Samajwadi Party has however clarified that it would not be a caste based convention and people from different communities like Rajputs, Bhumihars as well as educated people of other castes would attend the convention.
The SP has made preparations for holding the convention of the Brahmin community on August 23. Sanatan Pandey, was the party''s candidate from Ballia Lok Sabha elections in 2019. The convention in Ballia will be addressed by former UP Assembly Speaker Mata Prasad Pandey and national president of SP''s intellectual cell Manoj Pandey.
BSP president and former chief minister of UP, Mayawati, on July 18 had announced to hold Brahmin convention across the state from July 23. She had said that she was fully assured that the people of the “Brahmin community will not get misled by the BJP and vote for the party in the upcoming elections”. She said BSP general secretary Satish Chandra Mishra would lead the campaign to awaken the Brahmin community once again and the Brahmins would be assured that their interests would remain safe in the BSP rule.
Another challenge to the SP comes from the Muslim quarter as Asauddin Owaisi added to the discomfiture of the party by asking it to name a Muslim as the deputy chief minister in the future government to be formed by the SP.
Owaisi’s All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (AIMIM) is already running a relentless campaign against the SP in Muslim dominated areas, saying that Akhilesh Yadav has not done enough for the release of Mohammad Azam Khan, who along with his son is in jail for the past 17 months. The vocal sections of the Muslim community, particularly the youth, have launched a campaign on the social media accusing the Samajwadi Party of betrayal and mobilising support for the AIMIM.