Akhilesh sets eyes on Mayawati's 'Dalit' vote bank through Kanshiram

Realising that his 'Yadav-Muslim' vote bank may not be enough to counter the BJP in Uttar Pradesh, Samajwadi Party (SP) Akhilesh Yadav has set his eyes on the Dalit community, considered to be the vote bank of BSP, ahead of the next year's Lok Sabha polls.

Akhilesh on Monday unveiled a statue of the BSP founder Kanshiram at Unchahar, an assembly constituency in Raebareli district, which was the parliamentary constituency of the former Congress president Sonia Gandhi and heaped praise on the Dalit leader, who, until his death, was the main rival of SP founder Mulayam Singh Yadav.

The SP president, in a bid to woo the Dalits, who constituted around 20 per cent of the electorate in the state, has also directed his party leaders to celebrate Kanshiram's birth anniversary on April 14 with fanfare and reach out to the members of the community.

Also Read | For SP, it is not difficult but impossible to defeat BJP: Mayawati

Akhilesh has deputed former BSP leader Swami Prasad Maurya, who hails from the Dalit community and had joined the SP ahead of last year's assembly polls, to reach out to the leaders of the community and bring them into the SP's fold.

''Apparently, Akhilesh has realised that the support of Muslims and Yadavs is not enough for the SP to defeat the BJP in UP,'' remarked media analyst JP Shukla while speaking to DH here.

Akhilesh had earlier roped in firebrand Dalit leader and Bheem Army founder Chandrashekhar alias Ravan, who wielded considerable influence over the community, especially in the western UP region. Chandrashekhar had even campaigned for the SP-RLD nominees in the recent by-polls in the Khatauli assembly constituency. The RLD nominee wrested the seat from the BJP.

Also Read | Akhilesh to unveil Kanshi Ram statue; set to strike at BSP's Dalit base in UP

The SP president had also, in response to UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath's remarks that 'Sanatan Dharma' was the 'Rashtriya Dharma', said that for people like him, Ambedkar was the ''biggest dharma''.

He had also said that the BJP considered people like him 'shudra' and did not want them to visit temples and meet the Hindu seers.

Rattled by Akhilesh's Dalit outreach, BSP supremo Mayawati sought to remind the Dalit community about the attack on her and her party MLAs allegedly by SP workers in June 1995 after the BSP had withdrawn support to the then Mulayam Singh Yadav government in the state and cautioned them against supporting the SP.

Interestingly, SP had contested the 2019 Lok Sabha polls in alliance with the BSP and had managed to win five seats in UP. It was then expected that BSP and SP would fight the 2022 assembly poll in UP together but the bonhomie between the two arch-rivals was short-lived and they parted ways soon after the LS polls.