With Assembly elections in Rajasthan a few months away, the ruling BJP and Opposition Congress are vying with each other to woo the Scheduled Castes which, according to the 2011 Census, account for 18 per cent of the state’s population.
According to BJP, More than 2,000 ‘booth vistaraks’ of the party are going from village to village and telling members of the SC community about the Centre and state government’s initiatives for the weaker sections of the society.
“Each vistarak has been allotted two villages where they will interact with the SC youth and residents. We are telling them about state and central government initiatives such as the construction of Ambedkar Bhawans in each municipality,” O P Mahendra, president of state BJP SC Morcha, told The Indian Express. Ambedkar Bhawans are community centres being built by the state government.
Mahendra said the vistaraks are also highlighting the central government’s move to bring The Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Bill in August. The Bill was brought to undo “dilution” of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act by a Supreme Court order that laid down guidelines to be followed before registering a case under the Act. The verdict was met with strong protests from the community.
“The vistaraks will also make the SC population aware about the efforts of the Narendra Modi government to protect the memory of Babasaheb, such as the inauguration of a memorial in London. The Congress didn’t do any of this,” said Mahendra.
Rajasthan has 34 Assembly seats that are reserved for the SC community. The BJP won 32 of these in the 2013 state polls, while the Congress drew a blank. In 2014, however, the Congress won the Weir reserved seat in a bypoll.
The Congress, meanwhile, has launched Samvidhan se Swabhiman Yatra to reach out to the SC population. “Around 4,000 Congress workers are going to every panchayat, slum and village, and convening meetings with the SC population. They are telling them that democracy and secularism are in danger and there is a need to vote Congress back to power,” said Goparam Meghwal, president of the party’s state SC department.
Dalit rights activists said there is anger among the SC population, especially after the April 2 Bandh when several people from the community complained of persecution and harassment by police and anti-reservation outfits. “Neither Congress or BJP can take the SC population for granted. There is anger among Dalit youth and they won’t tolerate discrimination anymore,” said Satish Kumar, director, Centre for Dalit Rights, Jaipur.