Under fire for the recent attacks on Dalits, a section of the BJP believes the party should field a Dalit leader as its chief ministerial candidate in the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections due next year. “It’s the decision of the parliamentary board of the party, whether it makes a Dalit or an upper caste its CM candidate. We believe in development of all castes. But, it will enhance the party’s prospects if a Dalit is made the candidate,” said Ram Shankar Katheria, BJP MP from the reserved constituency of Agra. With around 8 lakh Dalit population, Agra is among the districts with the highest concentration of the community in the state. He noted that nearly a quarter of UP’s population are Dalits, who have been Mayawati’s voters. “You cannot win the election without creating a dent in Mayawati’s votes,” the former RSS pracharak told The Sunday Express. He said the reason why the BJP did well in UP in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections was because “many of her voters voted for the BJP and Modiji.” The Scheduled Caste communities constitute over 22 per cent votes in the state, of whom around 60 per cent are Jatavs — Mayawati’s sub-caste. In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, when it won 73 of the 80 seats in UP with ally Apna Dal, the BJP managed to secure 43 per cent of the votes. But despite not winning a single seat, the BSP got nearly 20 per cent of the votes, indicating that there was no major shift in its vote base. Read | Searching for Dalits: A yatra by Buddhist monks taking BJP to Dalits across UP “It always sends a good message to a community if its leaders are appointed to major posts. In the present scenario, a Dalit CM candidate would bring obvious gains to the party,” said Katheria, who, after being dropped from the union ministry last month has been trying to emerge as a major Dalit leader in UP. At present, the party does not have any Dalit leader in the state to successfully counter Mayawati. Over the last few months, Katheria has constantly spoken up against Mayawati and led rallies against her. When a Dalit was allegedly killed by some Muslims in Agra in February, he attacked Mayawati for not visiting his home. On the other hand, party chief Amit Shah and state BJP president Keshav Prasad Maurya have tried to downplay the BSP, and have termed the SP as their chief opponent. Katheria blamed Mayawati for “trading Dalit votes for her personal development”. He said: “For upliftment of Dalits, BJP made Mayawati chief minister on two occasions. But she failed. The BJP had made her the CM with good intentions, but Dalits witnessed little development during her tenure.”
