BJP scales up Suheldev anniv ahead of rural polls
LUCKNOW: With the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) having scaled up 11th century warrior king Maharaja Suheldev’s birth anniversary celebrations, some are linking the move to the party’s bid to make an impression among Dalit and Backward Class (BC) voters in the panchayat polls.
The BJP claims the king wasn’t given his due by past governments and historians.
The Yogi Adityanath government organised Suheldev’s birth anniversary in each district of UP while Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a 40-feet high statue in the king’s memory on Tuesday. While some call Suheldev a Dalit who was born into the Pasi caste, others feel he was a backward born into the Rajbhar caste. BJP leaders said they won’t mind if both the numerically dominant castes – Dalits and Backwards – claim the king to be from among them.
“Either way, these caste groups have been with the BJP since 2014 and will continue to be with us. We idolise him for his bravery and his patriotism,” said UP BJP vice-president Vijay Bahadur Pathak, who is also the party leader in-charge of the panchayat polls.
The Allahabad high court has asked the state government to hold the panchayat elections by April 30.
He recalled that in 2016 the then BJP chief Amit Shah and present union home minister had visited Bahraich and hailed Suheldev as a national hero and unveiled his statue and a train, too, was named after him. PM Modi had also released a stamp in Suheldev’s memory.
Before that, Rajnath Singh, the present defence minister, too had got Suheldev’s statue installed when he was UP CM.
UP cabinet minister Anil Rajbhar said they would popularise the valour of the late ruler not just in UP, but also across the country as the state’s culture department got some artists together to sing a song in memory of the king on Tuesday.
On the other hand, Om Prakash Rajbhar, the chief of BJP’s former ally Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) – the party named after the warrior king – is planning to take on BJP by forming an alliance of small groups.
“He (Suheldev) is one of us. There is enough proof. But we are not bothered about who is staking claim to his legacy. As for us, we definitely propose to go to each village talking about the greatness of Suheldevji. Some may be honouring his memory for political reasons but for us, he is our guide, guru and god,” said SBSP chief.
But for the time being, through activities like a song penned by Virendra Vats sung by artistes arranged by the state’s culture department, the BJP is hoping to re-connect with marginalised groups, just about a week after a new reservation policy for the panchayat elections was unveiled.
On February 11, the state government announced a rotation formula for reservation in the forthcoming panchayat elections, in which seats will be reserved for scheduled tribes (STs), scheduled castes (SCs) and backward classes (BCs) on the basis of their population.
“There are 58,194 gram pradhan seats in the state, which are headed by gram pradhans. In these seats, reservation for gram pradhans will be applied on the basis of population of reserved categories,” Manoj Kumar Singh, additional chief secretary (panchayati raj) had said.
“Out of total gram panchayat seats, 330 will be reserved for STs, 12,045 for SCs and 15,712 for BCs. This reservation is on the basis of percentage of their population,” Singh had added.