As the Assembly elections are drawing near,the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is planning a slew of sammelans as part of its efforts to woo voters of extremely backward castes,Dalits and the minorities. The party will hold a samajik nyaya sammelan for OBCs in Lucknow on September 29,a Dalit adhikar mahasammelan on September 30,a Sahu Samaj meeting on October 2,a conference for minorities on October 3 and another one for the Prajapati Samaj on October 9. Different functions will be organised on October 11 to celebrate the birth anniversary of Maharishi Valmiki as well. Though corruption and law and order are the partys plank for the 2012 polls,the BJP has decided not to speak much on these issues in these conferences but will highlight the grievances of these communities instead. We are identifying the grievances of these communities that were never addressed by any party. Their grievances will be main agenda of these sammelans instead of corruption, said Ramnath Kovind,who is the partys national spokesperson and in charge of its National Scheduled Castes Cell. We will highlight the report of an agency that shows a 10 per cent annual rise in cases of atrocities against Dalits in UP during the past four years, Kovind said. Kovind said that the party will highlight the issue of untouchability that hindered the growth of Dalits and extreme backward castes in UP. It will blame the Samajwadi Party and BSP for using these communities for political reasons. Senior leaders Rajnath Singh,Uma Bharti,national vice-presidents Vinay Katiyar,Kalraj Mishra,Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and state president Surya Pratap Shahi will address these conferences. Party leaders will start camping in Lucknow from Wednesday. Kovind reached Lucknow on Tuesday to supervise the preparations for the Dalit Adhikar Mahasammelan. Sources said the idea of targeting these communities by organising different meetings has been floated by Sanjay Joshi,who was recently asked to oversee poll preparations in UP. Another leader said the party has made an assessment that the extremely backward sections were not loyal to any particular political outfit and so the BJP can join the race to woo them.
