Lucknow, Aug. 30 -- Caste alignments within the ruling BJP are beginning to sharpen with an eye on the 2027 Uttar Pradesh assembly polls as ministers and MLAs increasingly seek to consolidate their base among their own communities, often through parallel shows of strength.

After nearly 40 BJP law-makers recently gathered in Lucknow, in what was seen as a demonstration of caste-backed solidarity, a senior Brahmin minister, who has been feeling "powerless" within the government and complaining that bureaucrats of his departments are drawing current from elsewhere rather than him, reached out to his community on Friday.

The minister held a closed-door meeting with representatives of the Akhil Bharatiya Brahmin Mahasabha in a government gue...