Reported By: Oliver Fredrick
Edited By: Pathikrit Sen Gupta
Last Updated: April 04, 2023, 00:25 IST
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav. (File picture/IANS)
According to sources, the SP management feels that an OBC-Dalit mixture, in a minimum of a dozen Lok Sabha constituencies in Uttar Pradesh, has the flexibility to be a sport changer for the 2024 elections
Several political pundits criticised Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav for unveiling the statue of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) founder and senior Dalit chief Kanshi Ram in Raebareli, calling it an try and woo the numerically vital backward group voters forward of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. The transfer, they mentioned, was made after the SP misplaced all hope of an alliance with the BSP. The Bahujan Samaj Party too slammed the act, calling it “a faux politically pushed gesture”.
“In politically delicate Uttar Pradesh, each transfer is calculated, particularly when the 2024 Lok Sabha Polls are not far away. The SP chief’s determination to unveil the statue of the BSP founder appears to be a deliberate step that was made after the SP did not get any response from the BSP within the context of the proposed opposition alliance,” mentioned Shashikant Pandey, head of the division of political science at Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University, Lucknow.
He mentioned that wooing Other Backward Classes (OBC) and Dalits is the Samajwadi Party’s new agenda with a purpose to achieve mileage within the upcoming polls.
BSP supremo Mayawati mentioned, “The SP is making an attempt to govern Dalit voters within the title of Kanshi Ram, which is the brand new agenda of the social gathering. But SP’s lengthy historical past of its caste-driven hatred and malice in direction of Dalits is understood to all.”
She additionally known as Dalits probably the most loyal voters and acknowledged that her social gathering has at all times stood by them. The SP voters, she mentioned, are identified for shifting loyalties, which is the primary cause for the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) resurgence in Uttar Pradesh. Mayawati mentioned that had SP been so severe about Dalits, it might have opposed the invoice on reservation in promotions. The social gathering has at all times proven disrespect in direction of the BSP’s saints and icons, she mentioned. Moreover, it had additionally renamed Bhimrao Ambedkar Park, Sant Ravidas Nagar, Manyawar Kanshiram Ji Nagar and Manyawar Shri Kanshi Ram ji Urdu-Arbi Farsi University, she added. SP founder member Mulayam Singh Yadav didn’t declare state mourning on Kanshi Ram’s demise, mentioned Mayawati.
Responding to this, SP nationwide basic secretary Swami Prasad Maurya mentioned, “The BSP right now has deviated from the trail proven by its founder Kanshi Ram and Babasaheb Ambedkar. There is an pressing want for the followers of Kanshi Ram and Mulayam Singh Yadav to hitch fingers as soon as once more for nation-building. It is time to hold ahead the concept of social justice that the 2 leaders had first shared in 1993.”
Maurya, a former shut aide of Mayawati, organised the statue unveiling operate in Raebareli.
According to sources, the SP management feels that an OBC-Dalit mixture, in a minimum of a dozen Lok Sabha constituencies, has the flexibility to be a sport changer on the power of the numbers. Dalits account for round 20% of Uttar Pradesh’s inhabitants.
The SP-BSP alliance was extensively perceived to be a risk to the BJP forward of the 2019 nationwide polls. But the saffron social gathering gained 62 of the state’s 80 Lok Sabha seats.
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