All major political parties in Uttar Pradesh made it clear on Thursday that Ambedkar would be the flavour of the season in the Assembly elections, scheduled for early next year.
All major political parties in Uttar Pradesh made it clear on Thursday that Ambedkar would be the flavour of the season in the Assembly elections, scheduled for early next year.
The Bahujan Samaj Party, in its battle to save its dalit votebank, plastered the state capital with posters, laying its claim to the Ambedkar legacy and Ms Mayawati addressed a gathering at the Ambedkar memorial in which she warned dalits of the conspiracy being hatched by “manuwadi” forces to drive a wedge in dalit unity. The BSP, which lost its dalit votes to the BJP in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, is now working overtime to win back its vote base. The poor response of dalits to the Kanshi Ram anniversary last month has been worrying the party leadership and so are the BJP’s efforts to woo dalits in a big way in the state.
Ms Mayawati, for all practical purposes, launched her party’s election campaign on Ambedkar Jayanti.
The BJP on Thursday celebrated the Ambedkar Jayanti in a big way. The Modi government launched its 10-day “Gram Uday se Bharat Uday Abhiyan” or village self-governance campaign on Ambedkar Jayanti and the party also directed its leaders to visit as many gram panchayats as possible and spread the word about pro-dalit, pro-poor, and pro-farmer policies of the Modi government.
The Congress, on Ambedkar Jayanti, held a programme at its state headquarters and reminded how the party had worked for dalit upliftment and how Dr Ambedkar was one it its most important leaders.
The Congress has also taken our Bhim Jyoti Yatras across the state and has been raising issues related to atrocities on dalits.
The SP has also developed a sudden love for Dr Ambedkar and chief minister Akhilesh Yadav has announced a “befitting memorial” for the dalit icon at the Chak Gajaria IT City.
The Samajwadis, till now, had flaunted Dr Ram Manohar Lohia as their ideologue, but the Akhilesh government is now going all out to raise a toast to Dr Ambedkar.
The SP seems to have realised the need for dalit votes now and last month, the chief minister even announced a holiday on Dr Ambedkar’s death anniversary — a holiday that he had cancelled after coming to power.
