Saffron plays Diggy Card

And in some ways mirroring the Bhopal conference, former leader of opposition in the Assembly Gauri Shankar Shejwar, the most prominent dalit in the BJP’s sate unit, says: ‘‘Apart from the 3,000 or so party members, we’ll invite 500 or so intellectuals who are independent in their stance.’’

‘‘A four-member committee, including Rajya Sabha member Ram Nath Kovind and former head of the BJP’s SC Morcha M Chelliah, will prepare what we will term the Mhow Document. This document will be circulated among the participants. We will present an analysis of what has or has not been done for the dalits since Independence.’’

He, however, adds: ‘‘There is one critical difference between the Mhow conference and Digvijay’s so-called dalit agenda. We use the term dalit to denote the SCs because we are looking at the social costs of untouchability, which is not a problem the tribals face.’’

This is very much in keeping with the BJP strategy, at least in MP, of trying to harness the Hindu vote in every possible fashion. Across the state, the party has aimed at different segments in different fashions. From the religious grassroot appeal to tribals in the villages bordering Gujarat to the large-scale co-opting of Samajwadi leaders into its ranks in the region bordering Uttar Pradesh, the BJP in MP has come up with its own version of managing contradictions, with one important exception. There is no semblance of even aiming for the minority vote in Madhya Pradesh. A majority of the majority is what the party is hoping for. It’s keeping with such a strategy that the party has shed its upper caste tag. Uma Bharti, a Lodhi and the current leader of the opposition, and Babulal Gaur, a Yadav, are both OBCs and the party enjoys substantial support among the OBCs in the state.

However, at least in the Hindi heartland, the new political antagonism is the one between the OBC and the dalit. The violence in the state that occurred in the wake of Digvijay’s land distribution programme reflected this fact. But BJP leaders point to the party’s performance on reserved seats as one indicator of its ability to make inroads into the dalit vote.

The figures, however, only serve to underline that the BJP cannot ignore the dalit electorate. The SCs comprise over 15 per cent and the STs over 18 per cent of the state electorate. And the BSP’s vote share exceeds the margin between the Congress and the BJP by a huge amount. That is one reason for Shejwar’s resurgence in the state BJP unit. Ignominously ousted as leader of the opposition six months ago, he is now being seen as one of the party leaders closest to Uma Bharti. In her tour of Baghelkhand, her first foray into the campaign trail after being handed full charge of the party, the only party leader to accompany Uma Bharti was Shejwar. The BJP is now hoping that a dalit conference and a dalit face will add to the votes it needs to oust Digvijay.