Eye on Gujarat polls, BJP set to intensify Dalit outreach

In Gujarat, which goes to polls later this year, the party will focus on scheduled castes and tribes, said a person familiar with the details

With an eye on the upcoming assembly elections in Gujarat, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) wants to intensify its Dalit outreach and has set itself the task of becoming a party of preference for the scheduled castes (SCs) that are traditionally considered as the vote bank of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).

The BJP had been wooing Scheduled Caste communities on the basis of its pro-poor policies, including the schemes for subsidised housing, toilets and free rations. (ANI)

In Gujarat, which goes to polls later this year, the party will focus on scheduled castes and tribes, said a person familiar with the details. “Following a chintan baithak (brainstorming session) chaired by union home minister Amit Shah in Gujarat this past week, the party has decided to amplify the schemes that were drafted for the welfare of the SCs and STs, and organise meetings with community leaders and the youth,” said the leader based in Delhi.

As per Census 2011, SCs account for 7% of Gujarat’s population while STs are about 15%. OBC’s at 40% are the dominant caste group. In the 2017 assembly election, the BJP won 99 of the 182 seats.

The need to revisit and sharpen the Dalit outreach was felt after the central leadership reviewed the party’s performance in Uttar Pradesh and underlined that it will need to redouble efforts to become the beneficiary of the BSP vote bank.

“Contrary to what we first read as a shift of the BSP vote bank towards the BJP, it now seems that we got only 15% of the votes while the larger chunk (35%) went to the Samajwadi Party and Maywati (BSP chief) retained the remaining 50%,” said a Uttar Pradesh-based party functionary. Both leaders declined to be named.

Citing an example, the functionary said, in Agra Rural seat, where BJP’s Jatav leader Baby Rani Maurya defeated BSP’s Kiran Prabha Keshari by a margin of 76,000 votes, the BSP candidate managed to get 70% of the total SC votes. “There were about 90,000 SC votes in that constituency, and despite our schemes, the BSP still managed a lion’s share,” the functionary said.

The BJP had been wooing SC communities on the basis of its pro-poor policies, including the schemes for subsidized housing, toilets and free rations. In Uttar Pradesh, where SC’s account for nearly 20% of the vote bank, the party’s outreach was pivoted on the social schemes for these socially and economically marginalised communities.

To buttress the party’s outreach, its ideological fount, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), too, chipped in with Samajik Samarasta (social harmony) programmes that pushed for eradication of caste-based segregation of crematoriums, temples and drinking water sources.

A marathon eight-hour long meeting chaired by party president JP Nadda was held in the BJP headquarters on Tuesday where participants from across the country confabulated on woo SC voters.

“The BSP has been on a decline and there is a race among the parties to bag its share of votes. The BJP leadership instructed the leaders at the meeting to come up with suggestions to make the party the first choice of the SC voters and also told legislators and lawmakers to address their concerns so that grievances can be nipped in the bud,” said the second functionary.