Continuing with its Dalit outreach campaign, the Bharatiya Janata Party is working on a slew of programmes in the coming days. This includes a 21-day contact campaign in Dalit bastis, a programme to mark the 100th episode of PM Modi’s monthly radio address Mann Ki Baat, and a social media campaign to highlight the view of BR Ambedkar on issues like Article 370.
The BJP has been working to woo the Dalit votebank as the 2024 Lok Sabha elections approach, and after its success with the Jatav votes in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections last year, the party had mounted a campaign from September 17 last year (Modi’s birthday) to November 26, which is celebrated as Constitution Day, where it aimed to reach out to Dalits across 75,000 locations.
The campaign, carried out by the party’s SC Morcha, was meant to tell Dalit voters in these locations about the BJP government’s schemes and counter “disinformation” among them. In all the party reached out to Dalits in 1,32,000 locations, says SC Morcha president Lal Singh Arya.
He says that the feedback from the campaign has led the Morcha to come up with a 21-day programme, under which the party will reach out to Dalit voters in bastis by knocking on their doors.
“Through this campaign, the Ghar Ghar Jodo Abhiyan, we will speak to Dalit voters about government schemes – people outside the purview of the schemes, those who have shifted homes, or people below the poverty line in slums and jhuggis. Many voters from the Scheduled Castes do not know about these scheme,” he said.
The programme will start from April 14 on Ambedkar Jayanti, and will culminate on Buddha Purnima on May 5, Arya said. The SC Morcha has formed a 11-member committee to carry out the campaign, he added, and bigger BJP-ruled states, too, will form 11-member committees. “Smaller states and districts will form 6-member committees,” he said.
In between the 21-day campaign, the SC Morcha also plans to involve senior party leaders like state and district presidents, councillors, legislators, MPs and former MPs to carry out a listening programme of the 100th episode of Modi’s Mann Ki Baat programme. A social media campaign on different facets of Ambedkar’s life will be launched, too, he said.
“Ambedkar’s support for Article 370, his views on reservation and everything he has said which is important to national interest, will be part of the campaign,” he said.
The BJP has been working at wooing Dalits ahead of 2024 after it managed an increase of 13 per cent in the Jatav votes in the 2022 UP Assembly elections. Arya says that the increase in allocation in this year’s Budget for the Scheduled Castes is Rs 1,69,000 crore, an increase in 11.79 per cent. Dalits account for 16.53 per cent of India’s population, and the BJP’s estimation is that over 35 per cent of that population is covered by atleast one of the Centre’s schemes.