Forty ‘thakur’ MLAs form ‘kutumb parivar’ in Uttar Pradesh

In a development which raised eyebrows in the political circles in Uttar Pradesh sending the rumor mills into overdrive, as many as 40 ‘thakur’ legislators, mostly from the BJP, held a meeting and later formed what they termed a ‘kutumb parivar’ (family of a community).

Two rebel Samajwadi Party (SP) MLAs Rakesh Pratap Singh and Abhay Singh and the lone BSP MLA Uma Shankar Singh (all thakurs) also attended the meeting which was held a couple of days back.

According to the sources, the meeting was convened by BJP legislators Thakur Ramveer Singh and Jaipal Singh. Of the 40 thakur MLAs in the UP assembly, 40 were present at the meeting.

The participants also created a WhatsApp group for regular conversation and quick exchange of thoughts and ideas, sources said.

Although the participants said that it was merely a ‘get together’, much political significance was attached to the meeting, especially in view of the reported resentment among the members of the thakur community in the western UP region during the 2024 Lok Sabha poll over ticket distribution by the BJP.

The BJP had denied tickets to many of its Thakur leaders and replaced them with candidates from other castes. The members of the thakur community had also held meetings at many places to express their outrage over the same and demanded that they be given their dues.

Some political analysts view the meeting as an attempt to form a ‘pressure group’ to ‘protect’ the interest of the community.

Of the 49 thakur members who won in the 2022 assembly polls, 43 were from the BJP, four from the SP, one from the BSP and one independent.