Samajwadi Party to celebrate Ambedkar Jayanti

Lucknow: Samajwadi Party, which has found a new political friend in the BSP, has decided to celebrate Dr Ambedkar Jayanti on April 14 in a grand manner. The party is sending out directives to all its district units to celebrate the occasion on a mega scale and use the occasion to increase interaction in dalit dwellings and dalit populated areas.

This will be the first time that a conscious effort is being made to ensure celebrations on Dr Ambedkar Jayanti. The party had, till now, restricted itself to the customary offering of floral tributes to Dr Ambedkar on his birth anniversary.

However, there is no plan yet to hold joint programmes with the BSP.

“It is wrong to say that we will be celebrating Ambedkar Jayanti for the first time. The party has always paid tributes to Dr Ambedkar on his birth and death anniversary and we hold him in high esteem”, said party spokesman Rajendra Chaudhary.

Another SP MLC, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that the occasion would be used to increase interaction between the SP and BSP cadres.

“Our party leaders and workers will be going to dalit populated areas. We will be organising functions and seminars, highlighting the contribution of Dr Ambedkar towards social justice. This will iron out the creases between the cadres of the two parties and also help in forging a new relationship”, he disclosed.

The coming together of SP and BSP, sources said, can succeed only if the social equations between OBCs, mainly Yadavs, and dalits.

The two caste groups have virtually been at war since 1995 when BSP MLAs were allegedly attacked by SP MLAs in the state guest house in Lucknow.