Lucknow: The BJP has identified more than a dozen prominent Dalit icons, including BSP founder Kanshi Ram, whose legacy it plans to invoke as part of a larger plan to consolidate the SC community in the run-up to the high-stakes 2027 state assembly elections.
UP BJP sources said the party has prepared a calendar marking the birth and death anniversaries of at least 15 Dalit ideologues who played a key role as social reformers by awakening the consciousness of socially deprived sections of society.
Besides Kanshiram, the Dalit figures who will feature in the BJP's future Dalit-centric campaigns include Sant Ravi Das, Sant Gadge, BR Ambedkar, Jyotiba Phule, Gangu Baba, Uda Devi, Jhalkari Bai, Veera Pasi, Lakhan Pasi, Savitri Bai Phule, Tilka Manjhi, Rama Bai Ambedkar, Swami Acchutanand and Narayan Guru.
Confirming the development, UP BJP SC Morcha chief Ram Chandra Kannaujia said the idea was to give due respect to every Dalit icon and to spread their ideas and teachings far and wide. He said that the BJP acknowledges Kanshiram as a powerful voice of Dalits, the underprivileged, and the exploited. "We also greeted BSP chief Mayawati on her birthday on January 15," he said, while speaking to TOI.
The development, experts said, aligns with the BJP's concerted attempts to make deeper inroads into the Dalit vote base amid a steep decline in the political graph of the BSP.The move is also seen as the BJP's bid to maintain continuous engagement with different Dalit sub-castes throughout the year, while preventing opposition parties from monopolising the social justice narrative.
Analysts said that the measure marks the saffron outfit's attempt to counter the opposition's Pichhda, Dalit, Alpsankhyak (PDA) poll narrative, which is said to have dented the saffron outfit in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, pulling its tally down from 62 to 33.
On Feb 1, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP leaders celebrated the 649th birth anniversary of Sant Ravidas, emphasising his teachings of equality and social harmony. PM Modi also visited Dera Sachkhand Ballan in Punjab and renamed Adampur Airport after Sant Ravidas. At the same time, the BJP SC Morcha launched various programmes aimed at honouring the spiritual leader and reaching out to the Ravidasia community.
The BJP, however, faced criticism from BSP supremo Mayawati, who charged the saffron outfit with not reverting the name of Bhadohi to Sant Ravidas Nagar. Ravidas is said to have been born in the Gobardhanpur village on the outskirts of Varanasi.
The party next plans to celebrate the birth anniversary of Sant Gadge on Feb 23 on a grand scale. Gadge, born as Debuji Zhingraji Janorkar in Amravati in 1876, belonged to the Parit/Dhobi community. He conducted his discourses in the form of kirtans, in which he emphasised values such as service to humanity and compassion.
By publicly acknowledging figures such as Kanshi Ram and even extending greetings to Mayawati, the BJP, sources said, attempts to soften its image among the BSP's core Dalit voters.
The BJP would subsequently celebrate the birth anniversary of Jyotiba Phule on April 11, BR Ambedkar on April 14, and Ahilyabai Holkar on May 31. Ambedkar was always part of the BJP's social narrative, even as the BJP moved closer to the Dalit community since its astronomical rise under the leadership of PM Narendra Modi after 2014.
The BJP also plans to invoke the legacy of Dalit leader Gangu Baba. Born in Bithoor, Baba was a participant in the India rebellion of 1857. He was hanged by the British in 1859. While his birth anniversary is now widely known, local Dalit groups and activists hold a tribute and honour ceremony for Gangu Baba in Chunniganj (Kanpur) on June 5 every year, which functions as his birth anniversary observance in community memory.
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