Amid tussle for Dalit votes, BSP cadre awaits Mayawati order

MEERUT

: Even though Samajwadi Party has joined hands with Bahujan Samaj Party in forming a grand alliance for 2019 against Bharatiya Janata Party, the situation remains unclear at the ground level for the upcoming Kairana and

Noorpur

bypolls. With nearly 2 lakh Dalit voters in Kairana and 60,000 in Noorpur, a tug of war for them continues between BJP and the SP-RLD alliance. With no instructions by the high command to BSP cadre to campaign against BJP, the latter is making all efforts to target Dalit voters. A video of BJP MLA from Dhampur asking Dalits why they would want to “waste” their votes on SPRLD has also surfaced.


Raviraj Singh, BSP zonal coordinator, Meerut and Saharanpur zone said, “We have not been given any instructions to campaign for the bypolls. There is an alliance with SP for 2019 election. But as far as these bypolls are concerned, without any instructions from the higher ups, we cannot start campaigning in favour of any party.”

With no instructions from the BSP high command, both SP-RLD and BJP are trying to cash in on the opportunity. While SP is trying to get Dalit voters’ trust by talking about the alliance with BSP, BJP is conducting public meetings in Dalit villages telling them that there is no alliance whatsoever between SP and BSP for the bypolls, hence they should not “waste” their vote.

Political analysts as well as BSP leaders said that the move by BSP of not showing their support to SP-RLD will not have repercussions for the grand alliance, because the current Dalit mood in the country was anti-BJP.

Chandra Bhan Prasad, political analyst, Dalit thinker said, “After the kind of atrocities that Dalits faced at the hands of police and BJP functionaries in the April 2 Bharat Bandh protests, Dalits will vote for anybody who will defeat BJP.”

The SP-BSP alliance had defeated BJP in Gorakhpur and Phulpur bypolls, one reason why the impact of the alliance in Kairana and Noorpur is being analysed in detail.