From Yogi to Akhilesh, why every UP player is chasing the Dalit vote

A political row has erupted in the state in the wake of a Dalit college girl’s murder in Meerut in May, which has sparked protests with a demonstration turning violent on July 8. The outrage has been fuelled by the police crackdown on protesters with demands raised for action against Meerut Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Avinash Pandey for allegedly beating them.

Dalits make up 21% of UP’s population, with 84 Assembly seats of the state’s 403 seats reserved for them. In the 2022 polls, the BJP and its ally Apna Dal (Sonelal) together bagged 63 SC seats as compared to 20 won by the then SP-led alliance. Dalits are largely influential in western UP, Bundelkhand and eastern UP.

BJP

Weeks after the murder of the Meerut Dalit girl, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath met her family members at a government guest house in Ghaziabad on July 18. Consoling the bereaved family, the CM said, “No person involved in this heinous crime will be spared under any circumstances, and the strictest legal action will be ensured against all those responsible.”

Adityanath also declared a financial assistance of Rs 5 lakh and housing to the victim’s family.

Last Friday, UP minister for social welfare and SC/ST welfare, Asim Arun, former IPS officer, met the slain Dalit girl’s family in Meerut and reviewed the investigation of the case.

In April, seeking to rebuild its social coalition involving Dalits, the Adityanath-led BJP government launched a new scheme, a Rs 403-crore Dr B R Ambedkar Murti Vikas Yojana, that seeks to beautify, develop and maintain statues of Ambedkar in all 403 constituencies.

The CM also announced that symbolic “protective umbrellas” will be installed over statues of Ambedkar and other social justice icons across UP.

In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, of the UP’s 80 seats, the BJP saw its tally drop to 33 from 62 in the 2019 polls, with the SP-Congress coalition bagging 43 seats. Of the 17 SC-reserved constituencies, the SP won seven seats and the Congress one, while the BJP got eight. The remaining one reserved seat, Nagina, won by the BSP in 2019, was clinched by Chandra Shekhar Aazad.

Samajwadi Party

The Akhilesh Yadav-led SP held a “Samvidhan bachao, Loktantra bachao maha rally” and a discussion on Ambedkar’s legacy in Meerut Sunday, with the party proposing to hold similar events in other districts in the coming days.

Earlier this year, for the first time, Akhilesh decided to celebrate BSP founder Kanshi Ram’s birth anniversary on March 15 on a large scale across the state, calling it the “Bahujan Samaj Diwas or PDA (Pichhda, Dalit and Alpsankhyak) Diwas”.

“Kanshi Ram joined hands with great socialist leader Mulayam Singh Yadav in December 1992 and gave momentum to the ‘Bahujan Samaj Banao Abhiyan’. He helped form a government of oppressed sections under the leadership of Netaji (Mulayam) in December 1993,” the SP said.

SP sources say that apart from the SC seats, the party is working on a plan to give tickets to the Dalit candidates in at least 14 general seats in the 2027 elections in a move to solidify its PDA plank.

BSP

Struggling to rejuvenate the BSP which has faced debacles in both the 2022 Assembly elections and the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the party’s supremo and ex-CM Mayawati last year revived “bhaichara committees” to form social alliances of Dalits with Muslims and OBCs.

The BSP formed the Muslims Samaj Bhaichara Sangathan with two coordinators — one each from the Muslim and the Dalit groups. Similarly, two coordinators from the OBC and Dalit communities were included in the OBC Bhaichara committee. The party has been reviewing the functioning of these panels every month.

However, Mayawati’s stance on protests over the Meerut Dalit girl’s killing drew criticism from Aazad, who is trying to emerge as a key Dalit face in UP and other adjoining regions.

In her reaction to Meerut protests, Mayawati urged Dalits and other marginalised sections to fight injustice through constitutional means and refrain from taking to the streets, asserting that political empowerment through the ballot remains key to securing their rights. “Certain organisations and political parties, driven by narrow political interests, mislead and provoke members of oppressed communities into launching protests,” she said, in an apparent swipe at the ASP(KR).

ASP(KR)

Mayawati’s remarks on Meerut protests drew a sharp response from Aazad who visited Meerut to meet the Dalit victim girl’s mother and sister, assuring them that he will raise the matter in Parliament. In a veiled attack on Mayawati, he said that issuing statements alone was “insufficient” and that political leaders should stand with victims’ families.

In early June, Aazad launched his “Satta Parivartan Yatra” in UP to woo the Dalit voters ahead of the 2027 polls. He also started screening his party’s probable candidates for the polls.

“Whenever any incident of crime against any Dalit, Muslim and OBC happens, our leader (Aazad) reaches there to meet the victims and their families. He was recently in Meerut, Lucknow and Rae Bareli in this regard,” said Saurabh Kishore, ASP (KR) state vice-president, adding that the first list of the party candidates is likely to be released on July 21.

Congress

The Congress, a major SP ally, has also signalled a renewed focus on a Dalit-OBC coalition as the party recently replaced Avinash Pande with Rajendra Pal Gautam as the All India Congress Committee (AICC) in-charge of UP. A prominent Dalit leader, Gautam is also the chairman of the AICC’s SC department.

The grand old party also staked its claim on Kanshi Ram’s legacy by commemorating his birth anniversary as “Samajik Parivartan Diwas”. Addressing that programme in Lucknow, Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi said if they had been alive, Jawaharlal Nehru would have made Kanshi Ram a Congress CM.

On July 20, the Congress launched the “Bahujan Vichar” campaign for holding padyatras and seminars across UP till August 20 in order to carry out mobilisation among the OBC, Dalit and other marginalised groups.

LJP (RV)

Last week the LJP (Ram Vilas), one of the BJP-led NDA’s major ally in Bihar, held its UP state executive meeting in Lucknow, which was attended by the party’s chief and Union minister Chirag Paswan. Sources said some leaders from the Pasi (Dalit) group suggested a slogan – “Kyun maange udhaar, jab apna neta taiyyar. (Why borrow leaders from other parties when we have our own leader)”.

Later, Chirag reportedly said his party was preparing for all 403 seats to contest the polls.

LJP(RV) MP Arun Bharti and party national spokesperson Dhirendra Kumar Sinha have been travelling across UP for the past one year, meeting the families of Dalits who suffered various atrocities.

“Pasi community in UP is feeling helpless. LJP(RV) is providing support and financial assistance to Dalits whenever atrocities happen to them. In most of such cases, SP leaders are accused. We take up the issues before the CM too,” Sinha said, adding that the party would organise “Dalit chaupals” at the village level in every Assembly segment.

Bharti and Sinha will attend one such event in Ayodhya on July 24. “We are consolidating our core base vote of Pasis and Paswans,” Sinha said, claiming that there was no Pasi representative in the NDA in UP.

The LJP(RV) has identified 104 seats where Pasis and Paswans are considered notable factors, who had supported the SP-Congress alliance in the 2024 elections.