Spot the difference: At odds with Bhim Army, Mayawati gets a friendly Bheem Army

Earlier this week, the 32-year-old Notiyal released a list of star campaigners for Rajasthan where his organisation is working to help the BSP form the government. The outfit has its central office in Delhi and claims to have regional offices in 24 states. Apart from Rajasthan, it has announced star campaigners in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh and has said it will soon deploy volunteers in Telangana too.

Notiyal floated his outfit after exiting the Bhim Army in 2019. Like Azad, he too is from Saharanpur in UP — from the village of Behat, which is about 25 km from Azad’s home. Notiyal claims to have been jailed for nine months in 2017 in the case that had seen Azad go to jail after being accused of instigating violence between Dalits and Thakurs in Saharanpur’s Shabbirpur village.

The Dalit leader told The Indian Express that he met Mayawati in Lucknow six months ago and received her blessings. “She has given blessings and asked us to strengthen the BSP. Bheem Army-Jay Bheem has taken a pledge to form a government of Bahujans. We are supporting the BSP because we like its ideology and I am sure that it will benefit the public.”

He added, “BSP governments in Uttar Pradesh worked for the welfare of Dalit, backwards, minorities, and tribals; gave them respect. Atrocities and injustice against these sections came down during the BSP’s rule. Behen ji (Mayawati) has asked us to support her party if we want to stop incidents of injustice against Dalits and tribals in Rajasthan, MP, and Chhattisgarh. She has assured us she will give us representation in any government the BSP forms.”

Asked about Notiyal’s group, BSP central coordinator and Rajya Sabha MP Ramji Gautam said, “Bheem Army-Jay Bheem has a following among Dalits and the backwards. They are volunteering their support and it will benefit us in the Assembly elections.”

How Azad’s party sees it

Azad and his Aazad Samaj Party (Kanshiram) insist they are not worried about Notiyal. “That organisation (Bheem Army-Jay Bheem) has no significance. They and the BSP are in panic over the growing strength of the ASP (Kanshiram) and hence they are doing propaganda on the directions of the BJP,” its spokesperson Satyapal Chaudhary says, adding that the ASP (Kanshiram) would contest 65 seats in Rajasthan in alliance with the Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP).

The bad blood between Azad and Mayawati is not new. In 2019, when Azad joined the protest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) and the proposed National Register of Citizens, the BSP chief had tweeted, “Dalits believe that Bhim Army’s Chandrashekhar is playing to the tunes of the Opposition parties and is conspiring to affect BSP’s vote share in election-bound states. He protests and then deliberately goes to jail.”

Cautioning BSP supporters against “selfish elements, organisations and parties”, Mayawati said her party “never accepts takes such elements no matter how hard they try”.

Earlier that year, amid the rising appeal of the Bhim Army chief, Mayawati spoke critically of “an organisation in Uttar Pradesh running in the name of Bhim”, saying that it had nothing to do with B R Ambedkar. The comments came at a time when the Bhim Army was making headlines over its protests against the gang-rape of a Dalit girl in Alwar, Rajasthan.