BJP is already playing the aggressive Dalit card to retain the support from members of scheduled castes and scheduled tribes it got in 2014 Lok Sabha polls in UP.

The saffron party has organized series of functions all over the state to reach out to members of scheduled castes and scheduled tribes who constitute 21 per cent of total voters in the state and play a very crucial role in government formation.

Much significance is being attached to the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Agra on April 24 to participate in Ambedkar Mahotsav. It would be worth mentioning here that Agra is considered to be a Dalit bastion.

As a part of celebrations, Prime Minister Modi launched “Stand Up India” scheme in Noida on April 5 and addressed the Dalit rally where he presented 16 Dalit BJP parliamentarians on the stage.

As a strategy to win over the Dalit population before the elections, the PM promised to bring about substantial change in the lives of Dalits and tribals and assured jobs opportunities in the near future.

Unnerved by the serious attempts by BJP and other political parties, BSP supremo Mayawati, who has been getting maximum number of support from Dalit voters, is also camping in Lucknow to supervise the arrangements for various programmes from party to celebrate 125th anniversary of Dr BR Ambedkar.

The BSP is working on gathering a huge crowd of its supporters for the occasion in Lucknow on April 14, even though both the BJP and Congress have now tried to claim Ambedkar their icon in recent months.

BSP leaders have been asked to bring five busloads of people from each of the 403 Assembly constituencies to Lucknow’s Ambedkar Memorial in Gomti Nagar. The party leaders said the gathering will be “one of the biggest” for BSP in Lucknow after the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

Congress party is also working very hard to bring back its Dalit voters under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi who has been visiting homes of Dalits and sharing meal with them.

Rahul Gandhi recently addressed a Dalit conference in Lucknow and emphasised on the building Dalit leadership within the party at grass-root level.

Mr PL Punia MP and chairman of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe Commission has emerged as Dalit face of Congress who recently flagged off third phase of Bhim Jyoti Yatra which would pass through 22 districts on the occasion of 125th birth anniversary celebrations and inform the people about the work done by UPA government in general and Congress Party in particular.

Samajwadi Party government led by Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav has also sent directive to all the district magistrates to celebrate 125th birth anniversary in their areas and huge funds have also been released for the purpose. The district magistrates have also been asked to submit the utilisation certificate of the funds.

It would be worth mentioning here that Samajwadi Party national president Mulayam Singh Yadav and his chief minister son Akhilesh Yadav have been making serious attempts to win over Dalits to enlarge support base of the party to achieve success in Mission 2017 to retain power in the state.

Prominent Dalit activist and former IG Police, Mr SR Darapuri said that political parties involved in mobilizing support in the name of birth anniversary celebrations were doing political stunt and they had nothing to do with ideology of Ambedkar. He blamed all political parties for ignoring social, economic and political thoughts of BR Ambedkar. For them Ambedkar had become symbol to play with the sentiments of Dalits to garner their support in elections, Darapuri opined. (IPA Service)