Dalits to play vital part in electoral outcome of Punjab polls
Punjab Newsline Network
Friday, 06 January 2012
By Naresh Kumar Sharma
CHANDIGARH:The Dalits which have a sizeable population play vital part
in the outcome of assembly elections in Punjab. The Dalits account for
30 per cent of the population in the state. The voters belonging to
Scheduled Caste (SC) in the state hold the key to impact the prospects
of the political parties in the state. However, due to lack of
effective Dalit leadership in the state the votes of weaker sections
including Scheduled Castes are polarized among different political
parties in the state
The Bahujan Samaj party despite being strong advocate of Dalia rights
had not been able to cash on the votes of weaker sections in the
state. In the 1992 assembly elections, BSP won nine seats with a vote
share of 16.32 per cent, however it dropped in 1997 to 7.48 and it
managed to win only one seat. Again in 2002, the votes share of the
BSP further dipped to 5.69 and in 2007 it came down as low as 4.1 with
BSP not winning a single seat. In 2009 Lok Sabha elections, the
party's vote share went up marginally to 5.75.
##ad_2##In order to shore up the BSP prospects in Punjab, the BSP
supremo Mayawati will be addressing four rallies in the state on
January 21 and 22 to woo the voters. The BSP MP and national general
secretary Narender Kashyap said the Uttar Pradesh chief minister will
be addressing address rallies at Kharar in Mohali and in Nawanshahar
on January 21. Besides this, she said that Mayawati will also address
meetings in Muktsar and at Chhapar in Sangrur districts.
He said that his party is hopeful of faring better in the upcoming
assembly elections.
However, in case the BSP is able to increase its vote-share it would
damage Congress more as compared to the Akalis as those voters
belonging to weaker sections which do not go with the BSP tend to
incline towards Congress. But in case the BSP manages to get more
votes or increase its vote-share among Dalits or weaker sections, it
would certainly hurt Congress The polarization of votes of weaker
sections between the BSP and Congress will help the SAD-BJP combine
on account of division of votes of Dalits.
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