BJP plans to win over Dalits, backwards

With the contours of an opposition mahagathbandhan becoming visible in Uttar Pradesh, the Bharatiya Janata Party has chalked out a strategy to win over Dalits and backwards, besides projecting Narendra Modi as a brand in the just-concluded state working committee meeting of the party in Meerut. 

The party has also set a target to win 51 per cent of the vote share in the 2019 Lok Sabha election.

The recent opposition onslaught on the BJP, calling it anti-Dalit, has rattled the party. Signs of it were visible in the state working committee meet that concluded in Meerut on Sunday. The venue was named after Matadin Balmiki, a Dalit freedom fighter from Meerut who laid down his life during the first War of Independence in 1857. Pictures of other Dalit leaders, including Dr BR Ambedkar, were put up at strategic places. Besides, leaders, in their speeches, took pains to explain how Dalits were ignored by previous governments and how the BJP has fought for their rights.

Besides this rhetoric, the party has plans to make inroads into Dalit vote bank and therefore it has started re-constituting the booth committees, making it mandatory that each committee have 30 per cent members from Dalit and backward community. 

Not only this, the BJP lawmakers have been asked to identify Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes hostels and provide facilities there from either their Sansad Nidhi or from Vidhayak Nidhi.

A senior BJP leader said that there was specific instruction to the lawmakers to work with SC/ST students. 

“The best place to make interactions are the hostels or other localities were Dalit students are in majority. Identify their problems and solve them,” the lawmakers have been told.

The two-day state working committee meet veered around two points – one, how to win 73+ seats out of 80 in Uttar Pradesh and, two, how to use the Modi brand and in which format. 

BJP president Amit Shah set a target of getting 51 per cent vote share before the party workers as it is clear that if a party can get that much votes, it will automatically translate into 73 or more seats. 

Keeping this in mind, the party has chalked out programmes from August 15, which will continue till September. These programmes will centre around strengthening party at booth level. 

On August 15, the BJP will carry out plantation drives at booth level where at least 11 saplings will be planted. On August 16, BJP’s Kisan Morcha will hold programmes in the state to honour the families of freedom fighters and martyrs while on August 17, BJP Yuva Morcha activists will take out ‘prabhat pheris’ with national tri-colour. On August 18, Mahila Morcha members will organise patriotic programmes, including ‘kavi sammelans’ and musical nite.

Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha spokesman Dhananjay Shukla said that ‘prabhat pheris’ would be taken out on a big scale across UP and all lawmakers would be invited to take part in it.

“We have asked volunteers to take their selfies with tri-colour and post them on their Facebook pages. We will then share the selfies with the BJYM group,” Shukla said 

This is not all. To increase its penetration at village level, the BJP will start ‘padyatras’ from October 2 wherein leaders will undertake a foot march of 15 kilometres per day. 

BJP state vice-president JPS Rathore said that the ‘padyatra’ would commence from October 2 and end on October 31.

“We have planned that every day, party leaders, including parliamentarians, legislators and other leaders will undertake 15-km ‘padyatra’. There is a target to undertake at least 150 kilometre ‘padyatra’ in each Assembly segment,” he said.

On promoting brand Modi, the leaders have been asked to download NAMO App and link people with it so that the masses may know what the government is doing for the welfare of the people.