Gearing up for Assembly polls slated in 2017 it is now BJP’s turn to woo the Dalit community. After hordes of congregations of Dalit, Vaishya, Chauhan communities by Congress, BJP roped in Minister of State for textiles Ajay Tamta to influence the Dalit vote bank in key constituencies of Haridwar Grameen vidhan sabha, Jwalapur and Ranipur. On Sunday he addressed Dalit community congregations at three places organised by schedule caste wing of BJP. He slammed Congress and BSP for using Dalits for vote bank for the past 60 years and never thinking of their development.
Addressing the Dalit congregation, Minister of State Ajay Tamta said, “Congress and BSP have treated Dalits as vote bank only but our Government has been working to develop the community. After independence Congress also insulted the Dalits and never allowed them to rise in politics. So was the strategy of BSP. Mayavati has been selling Dalit votes. Only BJP has a clear vision for developing the community.”
He further slammed Mayawati saying she was daughter of ‘Daulat’ and not ‘Dalit’. He said Dr. Ambedkar is a great personality of our community and the nation as well but Congress never honored him. We have decided to develop Dr. Ambedkar’s birth place for which the work is going on.” He appealed to vote for BJP in Assembly elections.
The district party president Suresh Rathore said that if Dalits supported the party, they would work for the development in the real sense as BJP was the only true well wisher of the party. He also targeted Chief Minister Harish Rawat and said Congress is the gang of thugs and CM Rawat is the head of all the thugs who made announcement for misleading the common people.
Notably as compared to other parties, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has strong influence over Dalit vote bank in Haridwar district.
BSP had won three assembly seats in 2012 assembly elections and now BJP and Congress are trying to manage the Dalit vote bank in upcoming elections.
Congress leader and state CM Harish Rawat had been targeting rural areas to woo the Schedule caste vote bank. Senior BSP leader and former MlA Yashveer Chodhary recently had joined congress with his supporters too.