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BSP, SP to hold events across U.P. to pay tribute to Kanshi Ram on death anniversary
SP national president Akhilesh Yadav on April 3 this year had for the first time unveiled a statue of Kanshi Ram in Rae Bareli at a school run by an SP senior leader
The Samajwadi Party (SP) will continue its new and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) old tradition of observing BSP founder and Dalit ideologue Kanshi Ram’s death anniversary that falls on Monday. Kanshi Ram had passed away on October 9, 2006 at the age of 72.
The SP introduced the tradition of observing birth and death anniversaries of Dalit icons—BR Ambedkar and Kanshi Ram—since 2019 Lok Sabha polls when it had tied up with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). The alliance sank within weeks of the not-so-favourable poll outcome but the SP used the alliance to initiate and consolidate its Dalit outreach.
Ahead of the 2019 poll, the SP installed a bronze bust at its Lucknow headquarters with a pride of place among the other SP icons Ram Manohar Lohia, Janeshwar Mishra and others. Since then, the SP has been regularly holding Ambedkar birth and death anniversaries and Constitution Day events statewide.
In 2021, the SP first celebrated the birth anniversary of Kanshi Ram and surprised the political circles in Uttar Pradesh and elsewhere just the way the recent Congress’s announcement to launch a ‘Dalit Gaurav Samvad’ throughout Uttar Pradesh on October 9 in a bid to win back the support of Dalits and most backward classes(MBC) in the state.
“Of course, the SP will observe Kanshi Ram’s death anniversary across the state with the main event in Lucknow,” said Mithai Lal Bharati, national president, Samajwadi Ambedkar Vahini. The Ambedkar Vahini is the SP’s newest frontal organisation that was founded in 2021 ahead of the 2022 U.P. assembly elections for Dalit and MBC outreach.
Then Akhilesh Yadav on April 3 this year had for the first time unveiled a statue of Kanshi Ram in Rae Bareli at a school run by an SP senior leader. “We are the people who follow the path shown by Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar and Manyavar Kanshi Ram. We are not the ones who are out to make a dent in the ‘Bahujan Samaj’ but those who bind them. ‘Netaji’ Mulayam Singh Yadav and Manyavar Kanshi Ram had started a new kind of politics in the country,” Akhilesh had said on the occasion.
SP national spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary said: “He (Kanshi Ram) was associated with us. Netaji (SP founder Mulayam Singh Yadav) had got him elected as an MP from Etawah 1991.” This time, Kanshi Ram’s death anniversary is set to be observed by all major parties in the state like the Samajwadi Party, the Congress and the Bahujan Samaj Party.
Meanwhile on Sunday, SP national president Akhilesh Yadav convened a meeting of the Samajwadi Ambedkar Vahini and Samajwadi Scheduled Caste Wing over Dalit outreach plans. All present at the meeting took oath of the Constitution to protect it.
The BSP has planned to mobilise the party supporters for the 2024 Lok Sabha election by organising a series of programmes and workers’ conference across the state on the death anniversary of the party founder Kanshi Ram on Monday.
Party chief Mayawati will pay tribute to Kanshi Ram in a programme to be organised at her residence 9, Mall Avenue, here on Monday morning. Party workers from Lucknow, Ayodhya and Kanpur divisions will assemble at Kanshi Ram memorial to pay tribute to him.
A separate programme will be organised at Kanshi Ram Prerna Kendra in Noida. The party directed its office-bearers to organise conferences in all the districts. Party supporters have released CDs consisting speeches of Kanshi Ram and songs highlighting his contribution to the empowerment of the Dalit community.
