With BSP founder-member in its ranks, SP steps up its Dalit outreach

According to Mithai Lal Bharti, national president of the Samajwadi Baba Saheb Ambedkar Vahini, seminars on the Constitution and discussions on the need to save it, and the role of the PDA will be a part of the celebrations, which will be held at party offices and the residences of the SP’s public representatives.

Dalits, seen to be a core vote base of the BSP, make up around 21% of Uttar Pradesh’s population. Around 55% of Dalits in the state belong to the Jatav community, which is traditionally seen to be firmly behind Mayawati.

Party leaders believe that bringing Prasad, who belongs to the community that traditionally works with leather, into its fold will boost its prospects significantly. “While we have prominent leaders from the Pasi community (like Faizabad MP Awadhesh Prasad), Daddu Prasad’s induction is significant. Unlike other BSP leaders, who joined other parties, Daddu Prasad carried forward the movement in his own way. We hope his joining will give us the edge, especially in eastern Uttar Pradesh,” a senior SP leader said.

A section of SP leaders also believes that the party’s attempts to cosy up to the Dalit community will help erase the long-held perception that the Yadavs – seen to be a core voter base of the SP – and Dalits cannot co-exist while also strengthening its stand in its alliance with the Congress. “The grand old party has been claiming that the INDIA bloc’s good performance in last year’s Lok Sabha polls was because it successfully attracted Dalit voters (with its threat-to-the-Constitution claims), and not due to the SP’s efforts. It is hoping to use this to bargain for more seats in the Assembly polls,” a senior leader said.

The SP registered its best-ever performance in last year’s Lok Sabha polls, winning 37 of the state’s 80 seats while ally Congress won six. However, the alliance hit a rocky patch over seat-sharing ahead of the subsequent Assembly bypolls, where the SP contested all nine seats but managed to win only two. Earlier this year, the INDIA bloc suffered yet another blow after the NDA wrested the Milkipur Assembly seat from the SP in a bypoll necessitated by the election of Awadhesh Prasad to the Lok Sabha.

Daddu Prasad appreciated the SP’s efforts to reach out to the Dalit community, calling them “impressive”. “(SP chief) Akhilesh Yadav has given space to Ambedkarites within the party. There is a feeling of brotherhood. Dukhiya-dukhiya bhai bhai is the motto of the Bahujans and we would see more Ambedkarties establishing themselves in the SP,” he told The Indian Express.

Claiming that deprived communities look for something beyond “roti (food)”, “kapda (clothing)” and “makaan (shelter)”, Daddu Prasad accused the BJP of “hindering” the social movement, which he claimed was taken forward for years after the death of BSP founder Kanshi Ram.

Daddu Prasad joins a long list of BSP leaders like Lalji Verma, Indrajeet Saroj and Ram Achar Rajbhar who have joined the SP over the past few years.

In another pro-Dalit move, the SP Tuesday launched a counter-protest against Kshatriya organisations agitating against party MP Ramji Lal Suman, a Dalit, over his alleged derogatory comments on Rajput icon Rana Sanga.

The SP has distanced itself from Suman’s remarks but has been trying to paint the protest against him as anti-Dalit. Party leaders on Tuesday questioned the Yogi Adityanath government over its “inaction” on the protesting members of the Kshatriya community and alleged a Dalit MP was being “threatened”.