BSP campaign: dalit atrocities to be in focus

The Bahujan Samaj Party has hit upon a new idea to counter the Bharatiya Janata Party ( BJP) which is making inroads into its Dalit vote bank in Uttar Pradesh.

The BSP is compiling incidents of atrocities on Dalits that have taken place in the BJP regime. These include the BhimaKoregaon incident, the suicide of Rohith Vemula, Una killings and similar incidents in Uttar Pradesh. These incidents will be printed in a booklet form and BSP volunteers will then take them for distribution into Dalit populated areas.

The volunteers will also interact with Dalit voters and explain to them these incidents in detail — particularly top those who are not literate.

The BSP, apparently, wants to build atrocities on Dalits into a major poll issue for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and dilute the BJP’s ‘ Hindu First’ campaign.

“The idea is to inform Dalits about the real intentions of the BJP, in whose regime atrocities on Dalits have increased manifold. The BJP is trying to mislead Dalits in the name of Hindutva but when it comes to caste discrimination, the BJP does not practice what it preaches”, said a BSP functionary.

In this campaign, the BSP will focus particularly on the youth who are comparatively more politically aware and literate than the older generations.

In targeting the youth, the BSP also aims at nullifying the growing influence of the Bhim Army on Dalit youth in western Uttar Pradesh.