With Lok Sabha elections due next year, the Uttar Pradesh unit of the BJP is renewing its efforts to reach out to Dalits, women, and other marginalised sections of society, at a time when the Dalit-centric Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) is losing its relevance among the Scheduled Castes (SC).
Within a two-week period, the ruling party is holding twelve mega conferences — six each for Dalits and women across U.P. — where top BJP leaders are invoking the humiliation meted out to BSP founder Kanshi Ram, the BJP’s welfare schemes for Dalits and women, and the progress made by marginalised social groups under the saffron regime. “We are trying to strengthen the party with these conferences and trying to develop a bonding with the community which was cheated by all other parties in the past,” said Ram Chandra Kannoujiya, who heads the BJP’s SC wing in U.P.
Asked whether the outreach efforts are aimed at the 2024 election, he replied: “Political power and electoral victory holds the key for any party, and only then the pro-poor policies of the BJP can reach the community.”
