Special events, renaming scheme to PDA unity call: Parties dash for Dalit outreach on Ambedkar Jayanti

Offering floral tributes at Ambedkar’s statue in Lucknow, Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav, accompanied by hundreds of party workers carrying Ambedkar’s portrait and ‘Jai Bhim’ flags, took a resolve bring the rule “of social justice” while calling for the unity of “PDA” (Pichhda, Dalit and Alpasankhyaks) for a brighter future and to save the Constitution and reservation policy”.

In a statement earlier in the day, Akhilesh said, “Let us strengthen our sense of self-respect and unite to establish the rule of social justice and give new strength to the PDA movement to save Baba Saheb’s gift and heritage i.e. constitution and reservation.”

He gave a call seeking to “understand the unity of self” and the “transformative power of this unity in the form of PDA”, maintaining the “Constitution is life-giver” and is also “the shield. “Only the unity of PDA will save the Constitution and reservation. Only the unity of PDA will create a golden future,” he asserted.

On the other hand, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati called upon not just Dalits and scheduled tribes but also backwards to unite as “missionary Ambedkarites” to attain the “master key to power”.

“All the Dalits, scheduled tribes, backward classes and other neglected people of the country will have to become true missionary Ambedkarites, whose power to become the ruling class by getting freedom from oppression and injustice lies only in their mutual unity and the attainment of the master key of the power,” she said in a press statement.

She went on to say, “The social, economic and political conditions of the Bahujans in the country are as pathetic in the BJP rule as it was in under Congress rule. Following planned attack on their constitutional right of reservation, they continue to witness bad days instead of “achhe din”, which is a matter of concern”.

CM Adityanath, who also offered floral tributes at Ambedkar’s statue, said under the ‘Zero Poverty Mission’, 14 to 15 lakh families will be identified in the first phase. Every gram panchayat will include 20 to 25 families, with access to all the benefits of government’s welfare schemes, he said.

“The scheme is being named after Baba Saheb as a tribute to his educational, social, and economic empowerment philosophy. Uttar Pradesh will become the first state in India to take decisive steps toward zero poverty,” Adityanath said.

Targeting Akhilesh Yadav, he said he was informed by the organisers of Ambedkar Mahasabha in 2017 that the former chief minister never attended such events. The gram panchayat committees which manage community toilets will be given monthly honorariums for continued maintenance through sanitation workers, he announced.

For the BJP, this is the start of a long play to win back the support of Dalits with the 2027 Assembly elections in mind. In the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP won only eight of the 17 SC-reserved seats. Five years earlier, the party won 14 of these seats on its own, with ally Apna Dal (Soneylal) securing one seat. The SP won seven seats in the 2024 poll battle, while the Congress and the Chandrashekhar Azad-led Aazad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram) won a seat each.

The BJP hopes its latest initiative will help it counter the “misleading” claims the Opposition made in the run-up to the parliamentary polls.

“The BJP has been an actual well-wisher of Dalits and has worked on the principles and ideology of Ambedkar, unlike the SP, Congress or the Trinamool Congress (TMC) … It is just that we have not been able to communicate it (to the public) … The Opposition is misleading the community. We are now reaching out to the grassroots and talking about the BJP government’s efforts to honour Ambedkar and places associated with him,” said a senior BJP leader.

At a workshop in Lucknow for party leaders before the start of the Dalit outreach, CM Adityanath claimed that Hindus who were being attacked in Bangladesh were all Dalits. He added that the BJP was the only party committed towards their protection. “The Hindus who are being attacked in Bangladesh are all Dalit Hindus … The Congress, the SP, and (TMC chief) Mamata Banerjee have not spoken about it,” he said.

BJP Uttar Pradesh vice president Dharmendra Singh, SC Morcha chairman Ravi Shankar Kanaujia, and secretaries Shankar Lodhi and Poonam Bajaj will monitor the programme, while state general secretary Rampratap Singh Chauhan is the convener.