UP: THE DALIT VOTE CAN BE A GAMECHANGER. WILL MAYAWATI BENEFIT?
Ramjivan Gautam, 55, a native of Babuhariya Purwa village in Lakhimpur Kheri, proudly calls himself a hardcore supporter of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).
A Dalit, Gautam has been casting his vote for the BSP in assembly elections as well as in Lok Sabha election.
But these days he is a bit perplexed. “If the BSP candidate is not in a position to defeat the SP nominee, we will not hesitate in supporting the BJP,” he said.
Gautam’s comments reflect the efforts the BJP has been making to assimilate Dalits in UP. “In the 2014 Lok Sabha election, the BJP succeeded in winning the support of Dalits but we are determined to stop their chariot in the assembly election,” said Hiralal Dinkar, BSP office bearer in Banihar village. “We have told the Dalit community members that the aim of the BJP leaders is to grab their votes. They are not concerned about the welfare of the community.”
But post the Una incident, the BJP is fighting a perception battle. Many cases of cow vigilantes indulging in violence against scheduled castes in UP and Gujarat have sent out the message that the saffron party is anti-Dalit.
Said political observer RK Mishra, “The 21 per cent Dalit vote in UP will be a gamechanger in the 2017 assembly election. If the BSP continues to maintain its sway over the Dalits and gets the support of Muslims as well as Backward Castes then it will emerge as the single largest party. If the BJP succeeds in breaching the Dalit fort, it will not only stop Mayawati’s march but improve its tally as well,” he added.
The BSP was placid until around a month ago. But the Una incident and senior BSP member Dayashankar Singh’s abusive statements on party chief Mayawati led to thousands of party workers protesting on the streets.
Mayawati launched her election campaign from Dalit-dominated Agra district on August 21. The massive turnout in the rally has generated hope among the BSP leaders that the Dalits will stand solidly behind them.
She not only raised the Una issue in the Rajya Sabha but also visited Ahmedabad to express solidarity with the victims. The BSP will find the going tough in western UP where a significant number of Dalits apparently went to the BJP’s fold during the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots.
The bus ‘yatra’ – ‘27 saal UP behal’ – launched by AICC president focused on Dalit-dominated villages. Congress leaders said that Dalit, Muslims and Brahmins were the traditional vote bank of the party and they were working hard to regain it.