Bhim Army’s expansion plan: Haryana polls just the start, Jammu, Maharashtra, Jharkhand in line

Sources said the party will also field candidates in Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand and Maharashtra. While J&K votes along with Haryana between September 18 and October 1, the schedules for the polls in Jharkhand and Maharashtra where Assembly terms end later this year are to be announced.

In Haryana, sources said, the ASP would contest 20 seats, primarily in the Ambala-Palwal belt that has a sizeable Dalit population. The party also has organisational strength and some influence in this area due to the region’s proximity to Uttar Pradesh, where it started from.

And in Jammu and Kashmir, sources said, the party is likely to field candidates from nine seats in the Jammu region. Party insiders said that talks were held with the Farooq Abdullah-led National Conference — which has now tied up with the Congress — but they didn’t get anywhere.

While in Jharkhand the alliances and seat details are being worked out, the party is in talks with the Asaduddin Owaisi-led AIMIM for an alliance in Maharashtra.

“We always knew we had the support of our society as we work at the grassroots level. But Chandrashekhar’s victory has now told other parties and the electorate that we can win. Many mainstream political parties are approaching us for an alliance,” a senior party leader said.

Another party leader said that there was a demand from the grassroots across various states to build party units and contest elections. These are states where the Bhim Army, the party’s social wing, has built a base.

“It is under this pressure (to contest) that we have ventured into Haryana, Jharkhand and Jammu. Both the electorate and the party cadre believe that we can be a political force in states other than UP,” the leader said.

Party insiders said the JJP hopes to emerge as “the next big Bahujan political force”. The party’s earlier forays into Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan were, however, not successful.

In Haryana, the party organisation is relatively new but hopes to take advantage of the popularity of Azad, who defeated BJP, Samajwadi Party and BSP candidates to win from UP’s Nagina constituency in the recent Lok Sabha polls.

The JJP-ASP alliance is hoping to consolidate the Dalit-Jat vote bank, with the two communities together comprising 45% of Haryana’s population. However, there is stiff competition from the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD)-BSP alliance that is also looking to woo the same vote bank. This has prompted criticism from some quarters that the JJP-ASP alliance would cut Congress votes, which also has a traditional Jat-Dalit vote base in Haryana, and help the BJP.

The JJP was allied with the BJP in Haryana until March this year.

According to Azad, one of the motivating factors behind him looking at expanding his base was the August 1 Supreme Court judgment on Scheduled Caste (SC)-Scheduled Tribe (ST) sub-categorisation, calling it “an onslaught on the rights of Dalits”. Speaking to The Indian Express, Azad also raised the Supreme Court’s observation on August 23 that “insult or intimidation” of an SC/ST member was not an offence under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, unless it made an insinuation about the person’s caste or tribe.

Calling the latter “an attack on the SC/ST Atrocities Act”, Azad said: “On both, all major parties stayed quiet. If anyone says this (that we are cutting votes of the Congress), then they are trying to malign the struggle of Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar.”

He added: “Both Ambedkar and Kanshi Ram built their own parties. Does the Congress not want people from the deprived classes to become political leaders or float their own parties? On our fundamental issues, these parties have done nothing. For the benefit of our people, I will have an alliance with anyone I have to.”

However, Azad said, an alliance with the BJP was out of the question. “The first thing that was negotiated with the JJP was that it would not partner up with the BJP after polls in any circumstance.”