BJP's Dalit agenda boosts Bangaru

NEW DELHI: Former BJP president Bangaru Laxman could well be on the comeback trail, thanks to the party''s need to project a significant Dalit face ahead of the coming assembly elections in four states, where the vote of the community is important.
A senior party functionary said on Monday that the BJP leadership wanted to make another effort to expand its social base. And, if it cannot achieve that, at least ensure there is no polarisation of Dalit, tribal and minority votes against what is seen essentially as an upper caste party.
In short, Laxman''s Nagpur message, delivered in August 2000 to the party''s national council when he was president, in which he had spelt out a 10-point action plan for the social and economic welfare of SCs, STs, OBCs and Muslims, is back in circulation.
At the recent two-day conference of the BJP''s SC morcha in Mhow, Madhya Pradesh, Laxman was not only given pride of place on the stage, he was also reportedly consulted by party president Venkaiah Naidu on how to counter MP chief minister Digvijay Singh''s Dalit agenda.

In his speech, Laxman pointed out that disinvestment had hit the Dalits hard as job reservations were restricted to the public sector. Indeed, it is he who pushed for the promise that the BJP-led government would make it a condition for any private company acquiring a public sector unit to continue with job reservations.
He also stressed that legal loopholes which allowed an 85 per cent acquittal in cases filed under the Prevention of Atrocities on SCs/STs Act should be plugged.

Party sources said it had begun to be felt that if defence minister George Fernandes — also living in the shadow of the Tehelka tapes — could lead an active political life, so should Laxman as he was one of the party''s most articulate Dalit leaders. Indeed, he is likely to campaign for the BJP in the assembly elections in MP, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Delhi later this year.

The BJP also feels it needs to develop its own Dalit leadership and not be dependent on the likes of UP CM Mayawati with whom the BJP currently shares a stormy relationship.

Party sources say that the BJP''s cautious attempt to bring back Laxman as part of fresh efforts at social expansion is of a piece with the attempts to mend fences with former UP CM Kalyan Singh, who is an OBC.