Maya in the meadows

An incident that occurred in this village more than a year ago explains the central caste question in this election8212;the pitch for Dalit...

An incident that occurred in this village more than a year ago explains the central caste question in this election8212;the pitch for Dalit and OBC vote. And why Mayawati, ousted from power in Uttar Pradesh, has come to play such a crucial role in neighbouring Madhya Pradesh.

In the first fortnight of August 2002, soon after the MP High Court quashed the allotment of grazing land in villages or charnoi to Dalits across the state, Latahedi had seen a spree of violence. Over the next week, till the government obtained a stay from a double bench, in village after village across the state, cattle had been herded out to graze on the first crop sown by the Dalits on the charnoi land allotted to them. Latahedi in Rajgarh district, from where CM Digvijay Singh8217;s brother Laxman is an MP, was among the worst hit.

In some places, OBCs, who controlled much of what was ostensibly grazing land, clashed with Dalits, in others with the police. Just in that one week, over 500 people were booked for offences against Dalits in Rajgarh.

Since then, through much of the state, the Dalit vote 16 per cent and the OBC vote over 50 per cent stands polarised. The two main parties have translated this in different ways8212;while the BJP has opted to forego the Dalit vote altogether and has instead focused on the OBCs, the Congress feels it will obtain a major share of the Dalit and enough of the OBC votes to pull through.

It is in this context that the role of the BSP can be best appreciated.

In Latahedi, 29 pattas of land, over 80 bigahs in all, had been handed over to Dalits. The Yadavs had in turn claimed that because of this, they couldn8217;t access their shamshan and that their traditional village paths had been encroached upon. According to a local Dalit, the violence began when more than 150 Yadavs, all armed, led their cattle to this land. After destroying the standing crop, they beat a man called Ghisa Lal to death. Police booked 32 men for the murder. Four Dalits were also imprisoned. Finally 26 of the Yadavs were sentenced to 20 years in jail.

The village, like vast parts of the state, is now split along caste lines. The Dalits are lined up behind the Congress, even though the land the party8217;s government has given them is of no value. Sita Ram is a Jatav whose brother was one of the four Dalits who were arrested. 8216;8216;The patta our family has obtained is useless. It lies under a lake. But at least the Congress has given us something.8217;8217;

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The Yadavs, who outnumber the Dalits 2 to 1 in the village, have their own string of woes. Says Daya Ram: 8216;8216;My only son is imprisoned8230; All my life I have voted for the Congress, but I am no longer sure.8217;8217; The younger among the Yadavs are not so reticent and say not even one vote will go to the Congress.

However, the BJP has been surprisingly slow to cash in on this divide. As late as April this year, it held a Mhow convention to appeal to the Dalits. For a while, former leader of opposition Gauri Shankar Shejwar was resurrected as the Dalit face of the BJP.

But soon enough the BJP sensed that they would do better focusing on the OBCs. Shejwar was packed off, and the party turned to its star OBC leader, Uma Bharati. She was projected along with Shivraj Chauhan and Prahlad Patel at the cost of the entrenched old guard. The 8216;Mhow Sankalp8217; was relegated to the shelves.

It is here that the BSP comes in. Till the last elections, the party had forged common cause between the OBCs and Dalits in its areas of strength. Out of the eight MLAs to win the last elections on a BSP ticket, seven were backwards. Most senior BJP leaders admit in private that they had been in touch with Mayawati over the MP elections. In fact, Mayawati had herself suggested that the BJP focus on the OBCs while she would work to woo Dalit support from the Congress.

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The BSP8217;s aim was to build upon the enormous amount of work done by its state president Phool Singh Baraiyya. The alliance with the BJP, as has been the recent strategy of the BSP, was to be a tacit one. Ever since realising that in any alliance the other party fails to transfer votes to the BSP, she has preferred this means to an open understanding.

But the developments in UP put a spanner in this strategy, which would have made a BJP-BSP combine unbeatable. Mayawati announced that her main aim was to defeat the BJP and, going against Baraiyya, who wanted the BSP to contest on all 230 seats, said they would put up candidates on 160 seats and leave the others on which it was not so strong. This was seen as a move to help the Congress, and Baraiyya left the BSP.

There is enough evidence of this BSP-Congress tacit understanding on the ground. Mayawati has even sacrificed part of her organisation to help the party, but it was too much to expect that she would not field strong candidates in the Gwalior-Chambal and Bundelkhand regions, which border UP and where the BSP has traditionally been strong. Such a step on Mayawati8217;s part would have meant the end of the BSP in MP, leaving the state open for Baraiyya.

However, while the BSP help and its Dalit agenda may help the Congress, the question remains whether this can offset the loss of OBC votes.