UP BJP president meets Dalit veteran to bolster outreach

Lucknow: UP BJP chief Pankaj Chaudhary met party's former national general secretary of Scheduled Caste wing Diwakar Seth on Makar Sankranti as part of his ongoing outreach to BJP old guards for seeking organisational support.Seth, a Jatav Dalit, was associated with many senior BJP leaders, including former President Ram Nath Kovind and former PM Atal Behari Vajpayee. Seth has stayed away from party activities for the past few years due to ill health.
Sources said the idea for the meeting was mooted by BJP's SC wing functionaries amid the party's bid to consolidate Dalits support. "The party will always be grateful to the workers who nurtured it during difficult times by dedicating their energy, time, and resources to the organisation. BJP not only remembers its workers but also stands by them like a family in their joys and sorrows," Chaudhary said.Analysts said that by meeting Seth—a veteran Dalit leader with deep ideological roots in BJP—Chaudhary has signalled his continuity with the party's long-standing Dalit outreach narrative. The meeting was significant in the wake of BJP's focus on strengthening Dalit-OBC social coalition to counter the opposition's PDA (Picchda–Dalit–Alpsankhyak) pitch which dented the party in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.Analysts said Seth's Jatav identity will lend resonance to BJP's Dalit outreach. Reason: Jatavs were traditionally seen as a core support base of the BSP. Any engagement, however symbolic, with influential Jatav leaders will allow the BJP to project inclusivity and historical association with the Dalit community, which accounts for around 21% of the total voters in UP.Soon after taking charge as UP BJP president last month, Chaudhary has been meeting party veterans. He visited Ayodhya and Mirzapur to meet former UP BJP presidents Vinay Katiyar and OP Singh, respectively. Both Katiyar and Singh come from the Kurmi community like Chaudhary.