The BSP has fielded two Dalit candidates while SP has fielded one on unreserved seats for the Assembly polls, an electoral experiment that has rarely seen success in the past as Scheduled Caste nominees find it hard to expand beyond the 21 per cent seats reserved for them in the state. Upper castes, backward castes and even Muslims have had more representation in nominees and elected MLAs as compared to Dalits, who have mostly remained restricted to their mandatory quota in a state that has the largest Dalit population in the country. The BSP itself has fielded 99 candidates from the Muslim community, which forms around 18 per cent of the state’s population, and 86 Dalits, whose population is approximately 21 per cent. The outgoing Assembly has two Dalit MLAs representing unreserved seats — BSP’s Jagpal, who won from the Saharanpur seat in 2012 and SP’s Vachaspati Pasi, who won from Sirathu in a by-election in 2014. Both will contest from the same seats again. BSP has also fielded Nand Lal Kori, a Dalit, on Seeshamau seat of Kanpur Nagar district. In 2012, seven Dalits were fielded on unreserved seats by BSP, BJP and Congress. Only one — Jagpal — won. In 2007, eight Dalits were fielded on unreserved seats by the four mainstream parties, but none won. The outgoing Assembly had 85 seats reserved for Dalits. This time, 84 are reserved for the community. “There is more casteism now than before. Earlier, Dalit leaders would win several elections from unreserved seats. B P Maurya won many times from Hapur Lok Sabha seat,” says Sanjiv Dariyabadi, who won in 2002 and 2007 from Seeshamau when it was a reserved seat, but lost in 2012 when it became a general seat after delimitation. BSP leaders say party founder Kanshi Ram used to encourage Dalits to contest on general seats like he himself did. He first fought elections from Janjgir Lok Sabha seat of undivided Madhya Pradesh as an Independent in 1984 and stood third. He was elected MP from Etawah and Hoshiarpur, both unreserved seats, in 1991 and 1996 respectively. Mayawati, on the other hand, has always contested Assembly and Lok Sabha elections from reserved seats. Party sources say her approach is practical because a non-Dalit candidate can fetch votes from his/her caste and add them to the Dalit support base. “Indian society still works on the basis of caste. But there will come a time when more Dalits will get elected from general seats,” says Gaya Charan Dinkar, leader of Opposition in the state Assembly. Dinkar won from an unreserved seat, Baberu, in 1991, 1993 and 2002, but lost to an SP candidate in 2007. In 2012, he contested from Naraini reserved seat and won. This year too, he is contesting from a reserved seat. “I got more votes on a general seat than on a reserved one. Dalit candidates often face financial hurdles. But what matters most is how the candidate connects with people,” says Meeta Gautam, who had won in 2007 from Fatehpur reserved seat. In 2012, her seat was scrapped in delimitation, due to which she had to contest from the unreserved seat Kursi, and lost. She is now contesting from Zaidpur, another reserved seat. Jagpal first won from Harora reserved seat in 1998 in a by-election after Mayawati vacated it, and again in 2007 by over 30,000 votes. In 2012, Harora was scrapped in delimitation and became Saharanpur, a general seat, where he won by over 17,000 votes. “If one works with devotion and sincerity, it is not very hard to get support from all sections of society,” he says.
