Madhya Pradesh polls: What is the SAPAKS effect that has the BJP worried

Bhopal, Oct 16: The battle in Madhya Pradesh will be an interesting one. Political observers say that this would be the hardest fought elections in the past 15 years. Will Shivraj Chouhan defend his throne or will he overthrown by the Congress?

There is an interesting terminology which has cropped up in the Madhya Pradesh elections 2018. It is known as the SAPAKS effect.

SAPAKS stands for Samanya, Pichda and Alpasankhyak. Samanya would comprise the general category including Brahmins and Thakurs. Pichda would have the backward classes and Alpasankhyaks the minorities.

The BJP is now closely watching the SAPAKS Samaj Party which has said that it would contest all the 230 seats. The party claims the support of 65 per cent of the people in the state and its president Hiralal Trivedi appears confident of forming the government.

While the caste wars are hotting up, the problem for the BJP began after the SAPAKS rally of Brahmins that was held in Ujjain last month. This worried the BJP as it appeared as though its core voter was moving away from it.

The BJP did some course correction in this regard and just two days before the model code of conduct came into force, it hurriedly announced a 300 per cent hike in honorarium for some 52,000 priests.

The SAPAKS effect would be seen in Madhya Pradesh in the upcoming elections. While it would be hard to substantiate the claim that the party would form the government, both the BJP and Congress are worried that it could mess up the caste equations to a large extent. The BJP however feels that the Brahmin voter will continue to back it and the SAPAKS effect in terms of the Brahmins would not exist.

The BJP is however not taking this issue lying down. Several Brahmin leaders of the party have emerged in the past couple of weeks. To neutralise this effect, Chouhan had held a meeting with former BJP minister, Laxmikant Sharma at Vidisha. Sharma an accused in the Vyapam scam was meeting with CM after a span of two years. The CM followed this up with two more meetings with Anup Mishra and Rakesh Chathurvedi.

Chathurvedi, a former Congressman had switched sides and joined the BJP. Mishra is the Morena MP. These meetings with these three leaders, who were forgotten by the party is a clear indicator of how the BJP is trying to neutralise the SAPAKS effect especially where the Brahmins are concerned.