2012: Maya banks on Kanshiram to keep her Dalit flock
Sanjay Singh Posted online: Wed Mar 09 2011, 03:48 hrs
Lucknow : Ahead of the 2012 Assembly elections, Chief Minister
Mayawati has started giving special focus on her party's core votebank
of scheduled castes. After making it a point to visit Ambedkar
villages — the villages having a substantial Dalit population — during
her recent inspection tour across the state, Mayawati now wants to
reassure the Dalits the party has not deviated from the path of its
founder Kanshiram.
For this purpose, the BSP this year will organise celebrations on the
event of the birth anniversary of Kanshiram on March 15 at district
headquarters. "Keeping in mind the 2012 Assembly elections, the chief
minister has deliberately preferred to celebrate Kanshiram's birth
anniversary in districts, instead of holding a big rally in the state
capital as in the past," said a BSP leader.
The main concern of the BSP leadership is to remove the confusion, if
any, in the minds of party voters regarding party's efforts to pursue
Kanshiram's policy.
BSP sources said the party leadership is worried over the efforts by
Opposition parties, particularly the Congress, to make dents in the
BSP's core votebank by highlighting atrocities on Dalits, including
rape of Dalit women, and alleging that Chief Minister Mayawati had
deviated from the path of BSP founder Kanshiram.
The BSP cannot take it lightly as, earlier in the 2009 Lok Sabha
election, the party had seen its hold on certain Scheduled Communities
like Sonkar, Pasi, Balmiki and Nishad weakening. As a result, it could
win only two of the 17 reserved Lok Sabha seats in the state.
After that setback, to reassure the Dalits, the government had taken
several measures like quota for SCs/STs in government contracts and
special housing scheme for them. The BSP would use Kanshiram's birth
anniversary to remind the Dalits of these and other measures it has
taken for their welfare, said a BSP leader.
Besides the Opposition attacks, another factor that has troubled the
BSP leadership is reports about party MLAs not paying attention to the
problems faced by Dalits. "The MLAs who represent general seats tend
to take the SC support to the BSP for granted. In many constituencies,
there is resentment over this neglect," said a party leader. Zonal
coordinators of the party have been asked to identify such areas and
initiate corrective measures.
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