Lucknow, April 29 : The Samajwadi Party (SP) is apparently making a conscious effort to downplay its pro-Yadav image and has focused on non-Yadav OBCs in candidate selection in eastern Uttar Pradesh.

The SP has chosen candidates belonging to OBC caste groups like Kurmi, Nishad, Rajbhar, Bind and Kushwaha on prominent seats.

The idea is obviously to bring the other backward castes closer to Yadavs and form a consolidated vote base.

The Samajwadi Party, for instance, has fielded Pappu Nishad from Sant Kabir Nagar. He is challenging BJP candidate Parveen Nishad, son of Nishad Party President Sanjay Nishad in this seat.

In Basti, SP has chosen veteran Ram Prasad Chaudhary, a Kurmi, to challenge BJP sitting MP Harish Dwivedi. Dwivedi had defeated Chaudhary in the 2019 elections. The BSP, this time has nominated Daya Shankar Mishra as its candidate.

In Jaunpur, former BSP minister Babu Singh Kushwaha is the SP candidate. He is pitted against Kripa Shankar Singh of the BJP. Singh is the former minister of the Maharashtra government. The BSP has fielded Sreekala Reddy Singh, wife of mafia don and former MP Dhananjay Singh.

In Salempur, the Samajwadi Party has fielded Rama Shankar Rajbhar, who wields influence among his Rajbhar community, while the BJP has repeated its sitting MP Ravindra Kushwaha.

In Mirzapur, the Samajwadi candidate is Rajendra Bind who also belongs to the riverine community. The Mirzapur seat is held by BJP ally -- Apna Dal (S) -- and its leader Anupriya Patel will be seeking her third term from here.

In Maharajganj, the Samajwadi Party candidate is Narendra Chaudhary who belongs to the Kurmi community.

The SP has fielded Pintu Sainthwar, another OBC, from Kushinagar while it has named Lalji Varma, a Kurmi leader, from Ambedkar Nagar. The SP has also named a Kurmi candidate from Pratapgarh -- S P Singh Patel.

'Yes, we have made a conscious effort this time to give greater representation to non-Yadav OBCs and this is a part of our PDA (Pichhda, Dalit, Alpasankhyak) formula,' said a party spokesman.

The SP, this time, has only five Yadavs in its list -- Akhilesh Yadav from Kannauj, Dharmendra Yadav, from Azamgarh, Dimple Yadav from Mainpuri, Akshay Yadav from Firozabad and Aditya Yadav from Budaun. It is another matter that all of them belong to the same family.

/IANS