SP to go all out to net Dalit votes

In a clear departure from the past, the Samajwadi Party will make a concerted effort to woo the Dalits - long considered as the base vote of the Bahujan Samaj Party in Uttar Pradesh - by undertaking a long-drawn campaign in the form of Dalit Mahasammellans all over the State. The conventions will be organized in all the 18 divisions of the State with the Ministers, MLAs, MLCs and senior party functionaries participating in it.

Clearly, the Samajwadi Party’s focus is on the 2017 Assembly elections and through these conventions the party leadership wants to establish a direct connect with the Dalits, especially the younger generation, which has moved on.

The campaign will be kicked off from Azamgarh, the Lok Sabha constituency of Samajwadi Party president, Mulayam Singh, on July 11 by the Budaun MP Dharmendra Yadav. Mr. Yadav will be Mr. Singh’s representative in the mahasammellan which is expected to be attended by about half-a-dozen Ministers. The Azamgarh Dalit convention was earlier scheduled for June 30, but has been postponed till July 11.

Samajwadi Party sources said subsequent Dalit conventions would be held in Kanpur, Jhansi, Varanasi, Meerut, Agra and Gonda. The campaign will culminate in a public rally in Lucknow in December.

Despite the fact that the Samajwadi Party won 56 out of the 85 reserved Assembly seats in the 2012 polls, the Dalits have never been considered the party’s supporters. Samajwadi Party’s victory on the reserved seats was made possible with vote-support of the other sections and not solely on account of the Dalits. In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the overwhelming support of the Dalit voters was considered a key factor in the Bharatiya Janata Party’s runaway victory and the decimation of the Bahujan Samaj Party, which failed to open its account. The Samajwadi Party and the Congress managed to win five and two seats with the winners belonging to the Yadav and Gandhi families.

Samajwadi Party sources said through the Dalit Mahasammellans and the campaign to establish direct contact with the community, the party aimed at reaching out to the non-Jatav and non-Chamar Dalit sub-castes.

The Jatav and Chamar Dalit sub-castes constituted the core support base of the BSP and who have largely retained their loyalty for Mayawati. With this in mind, the SP’s MLA from Saidpur in Ghazipur district, Subhash Pasi, was made the chairman of the Scheduled Caste Cell of the party and has now been given the responsibility of organising the Dalit conventions.

On the party’s radar are the Pasis, who have a sizeable presence in the State, particularly in Central U.P., the Dhanuks, Doms and Balmiki, sources said.