Where others can see the best monsoon in a long, long time, Uma Bharti probably detects just dark clouds and washed-out plans. Today, as she began the 12th leg of her rathyatra from Raghogarh, Chief Minister Digvijay Singh’s home turf, all the work she has put in for what has been a very long election campaign looked diluted by the rains.When she left off 17 days ago — the break was on account of the sowing season — Uma was talking of the bleak power situation in the state. But the rains, which have filled up reservoirs in the state, will change that. By ensuring a good harvest, the monsoon will also take some edge off the anti-incumbency factor against Digvijay.The BJP seems to be struggling to figure out a response to the new situation. And it showed in Uma’s pitch, which differed little from what she has been saying since the beginning of her yatra.The one change was that the party seems to have decided to woo the OBCs at the expense of the Dalit vote. Uma’s yatra today traversed Guna and Rajgarh districts, and Rajgarh has been at the heart of the conflict between the Dalits and OBCs over the government’s distribution of village grazing land or charnoi.Last year, in several villages of the district, the OBCs driven their cattle through fields planted by the Dalits, destroying their crop. The government had then imposed a collective fine on five villages . The process has been completed recently, and has been met with criticism from the BJP.Today Uma laid the blame for the caste conflict at Digvijay’s door, saying the process of distribution of land itself contained the seeds of such conflict. Citing examples of similar incidents this year, she insisted that these were a natural outcome of the process . The BJP criticism follows Digvijay’s move to declare enhanced reservation for OBCs. Clearly focusing on the OBC vote, the BJP has even laid its own Dalit Sankalp on the backburner. No one in BJP is willing to explain why Sankalp continues to be delayed.The elevation of OBC leaders like Shivraj Chauhan and Prahlad Patel tells its own tale. The only Dalit leader worth a mention in the state unit, former leader of Opposition Gauri Shankar Shejwar, was revived at the time of the Mhow convention but has once again disappeared from the scene.
