BSP chief Mayawati has assigned important roles to party workers from non-Jatav Dalit sub-castes, in a calculated measure to counter any possible division of Dalit votes. With state polls only months away, she has, for the first time, formed bhaichara committees to woo members of such castes. Watch What Else is Making News Most BSP’s leaders, including Mayawati, belong to Jatav caste — the biggest in the 66 Scheduled Castes in UP — which has been an ardent supporter of the party. But other SCs like Pasi, Dhobi, Kori and Balmiki have often chosen to support the BJP, Samajwadi Party and Congress because of the dominance of Jatavs in the BSP. While Dalits constitute nearly 22 per cent of UP’s population, Jatavs account for 56 per cent of the state’s Dalit community. Out of this 56 per cent, Pasis account for 16 per cent. Mayawati has appointed retired bureaucrat Chintamani as the incharge of bhaichara committee to woo the Dhobi caste. Chintamani, who runs Dhobi Samyukta Samiti, a non-political organisation, has already organised more than a dozen public meetings in the reserved constituencies of UP, seeking support of the people of his caste for BSP candidates. Manjhanpur MLA Indrajeet Saroj, who belongs to Pasi caste, has been a coordinator for the party in Allahabad and Varanasi divisions. He has addressed public meetings in most of the seats, dominated by his caste, in the regions surrounding Lucknow and Allahabad. Similarly, bhaichara representatives from Kori, Balmiki and Khatik castes have been selected in every division where these groups have significant population. The party recently appointed Bhupendra Arya, who was Kori caste’s bhaichara in-charge, as the party’s chief zonal coordinator in Jhansi division of Bundelkhand, where Koris have a significant population. Another Kori leader, Sanjay Verma, has been appointed as the new bhaichara in-charge there. Arya said the BSP had always given adequate representation to Kori caste and this time the party had chosen five candidates from the caste group, including one Nandlal Kori for Seesamau seat of Kanpur, which is an unreserved seat. “BJP and SP have tried to woo the Kori caste in the past, but they know that their good lies in the larger Dalit fold. It is because of Babasaheb Ambedkar that we got reserved seats and the BSP works for the good of all the Dalits. This time, a Kori has been fielded even on a general seat,” he said. Earlier, the BSP used to form bhaichara committees only for forward castes and the other backward castes. But, the BJP and SP have aggressively tried to woo the non-Jatav Dalits in the past few elections, in order to improve their performances in 86 assembly seats reserved for SC In 2012, the SP had won 56 of 85 seats reserved for SCs. Most of its MLAs were non-Jatavs, with majority of them from Pasi caste. The BJP won all 17 Lok Sabha seats in 2014 and most of its MPs were also from non-Jatav castes like Pasi, Khatik, Kori and Dhanuk. The BJP has already started focusing on non-Jatav Dalit castes and has appointed Mohanlalganj MP Kaushal Kishore, who belongs to Pasi caste, as the head of party’s Scheduled Caste Morcha. In July, the party had inducted Shahjahanpur MP Krishna Raj, who also belongs to Pasi caste, into the Union council of ministers. A senior BSP coordinator said the focus on non-Jatav castes had been placed in order to avoid any split in Dalit votes, especially on reserved seats, where BSP’s Dalit candidates find it hard to perform better as they fail to get as much non-Dalit votes as other parties’ Dalit candidates do.
