The Samajwadi Party is banking on regional heavyweights across the board —from the OBC communities to the upper caste Brahmins — many of them BSP turncoats in its latest list of 56 candidates for eastern Uttar Pradesh. The Akhilesh Yadav-led party has built a most formidable caste alliance in the region to challenge the BJP.
At the centre of these efforts are Azamgarh and Ambedkar Nagar districts.