For the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) founder Kanshi Ram’s birth anniversary celebrations this year assume more importance as assembly polls are due in Uttar Pradesh in March-April next year.
The party has planned mega events across the state on the BSP founder’s birth anniversary on March 15 at its district offices and the Yogi government has issued directives for sprucing up all Kashni Ram Awas across the state.
The state government has already directed all district magistrates to evict encroachers from Kanshi Ram Awas and allot them to Dalits. BJP workers and the party’s Schedule Caste wing will reach out to Dalits in slums and Dalit hamlets in villages across the state. The Ambedkar Mahasabha will also organise events across the state in Dalit hamlets.
“Dalit ideologue Kanshi Ram mobilised the marginalised and reshaped the state’s social justice politics. As the BJP government in the state is entering its ninth year, the party is now seeking to recalibrate social equations as it aims to retain power in the state for a third consecutive term,” said a senior BJP leader.
Dharampal Singh, BJP state general secretary (organisation), has directed all district units of the party to observe the BSP founder’s birth anniversary at party offices and Dalit hamlets. The party’s SC wing in UP has already prepared a year-long calendar to organise programmes marking the birth and death anniversaries of over a dozen prominent social reformers from SC and ST communities.
{{/usCountry}}Dharampal Singh, BJP state general secretary (organisation), has directed all district units of the party to observe the BSP founder’s birth anniversary at party offices and Dalit hamlets. The party’s SC wing in UP has already prepared a year-long calendar to organise programmes marking the birth and death anniversaries of over a dozen prominent social reformers from SC and ST communities.
{{/usCountry}}They include Ramabai Ambedkar, Savitribai Phule, Sant Gadge Maharaj, Swami Achhootanand, Jhalkari Bai, Durbal Maharaj, Sant Ravidas and Uda Devi.
The state BJP leadership is concerned about Dalit voters after the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, in which its tally in Uttar Pradesh fell as compared to 2019, while the SP-Congress alliance won more seats than the BJP-led NDA in the state.
In four successive poll victories in Uttar Pradesh—2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha and 2017, 2022 assembly polls – the BJP managed the most diverse representation minus Muslims. The party succeeded in keeping intact its caste umbrella, broadly non-Jatav Dalits, non-Yadav OBCs and upper castes, in four polls in Uttar Pradesh.
However, in the 2024 Lok Sabha poll, the SP’s PDA (Pichhda, Dalits and Alpsankhyak) plank succeeded in bringing a large chunk of OBCs and Dalits into its fold, dealing a blow to the BJP. The BJP’s tally of seats in Uttar Pradesh dropped to 33 in the last Lok Sabha election from 62 in 2019.