India, Aug. 12 -- For decades, Uttar Pradesh's political theatre was held hostage by the binaries of Mandal politics. Parties like the Samajwadi Party (SP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) built their electoral empires on caste mobilisation. Yet, in practice, this translated into the empowerment of dominant sub-castes-Yadavs and Jatavs-while the vast majority of marginalised groups remained locked out of real economic mobility. When Yogi Adityanath assumed office in 2017, the conventional wisdom in Lucknow's drawing rooms was that the BJP was an upper-caste party incapable of breaching this Mandal fortress.

Nearly eight years later, that fortress lies in ruins. Yogi has not only breached it but has rewritten the very rules of social justice...