New Delhi: Though the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) has no prominent Scheduled Castes party in its fold, barring the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) in Tamil Nadu, it is hoping to get more Dalit votes this time in comparison to the 2019 parliamentary election.
This is largely because the mainstream Dalit outfits have failed to read the mood of their own supporters. Some Bharatiya Janata Party leaders have even linked the saffron party’s agenda to win 400+ seats with the overhauling of the Constitution of India.
As both the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes communities rely heavily on the constitution for their social, economic, and political empowerment, they are bound to feel alarmed over any such utterances.
The BSP factor
As most of the Dalit outfits have either maintained an equal distance from both the SC and ST camps or are part of the National Democratic Alliance, the voters from this section of the society have started to show their inclination towards the Congress party, and even some of its regional partners.
In states where there is no strong presence of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), such as Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat Haryana, etc., Dalits are looking towards the Congress as an alternative. In the 2019 Lok Sabha election, they were heavily inclined towards the BJP.
In the crucial state of Uttar Pradesh, where the SC population is the highest, the BSP has failed to exploit this situation. This situation, to an extent, is preventing the shift of the SC votes to the INDIA bloc. SCs comprise 21.3% of the population in UP. Out of that, 60% are said to be
Jatavs or Ravidas, the castes to which BSP supremo Mayawati belongs. The leader of the Azad Samaj Party, Chandrashekar Azad, is trying to challenge her monopoly on this caste. However, he is not a part of the INDIA bloc, which is trying to woo the rest of the 40% votes from Dalit communities.
The INDIA bloc has given tickets to 19 people belonging to the Dalit community, as against 17 SC reserved seats in the state. The Samajwadi Party has fielded a Dalit veteran, Awadhesh Prasad, from the Faizabad general seat. Faizabad is located in the Ayodhya district of UP.
Similarly, in Meerut, the Samajwadi Party made Sunita Verma, another member belonging to the Dalit community, as its candidate, though it is an unreserved seat. Notably, the BJP had fielded Arun Govil, who played the role of Lord Rama in the television serial, Ramayan.
Only time will tell whether this strategy of cancelling out the impact of religiosity in Faizabad and Meerut by putting up Dalit candidates works or not in UP. Meanwhile, there is a growing sign of restiveness among the SCs and STs across the country.
Ambedkarites for INDIA
In Maharashtra, while the Ramdas Athawale-led Republican Party is a constituent of NDA, Prakash Ambedkar’s Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) is not contesting in alliance with INDIA after the talks collapsed. Yet the INDIA bloc is keeping its fingers crossed as several dozen Ambedkarite and Buddhist organisations have openly come out in favour of the alliance.
Incidentally, one of the 36 candidates of the VBA withdrew from the contest in favour of an INDIA candidate. Therefore, it can be said that Prakash Ambedkar is finding it difficult to keep his own house in order.
This development has come as a severe blow to the BJP, whose former president and Union minister Nitin Gadkari is locked in a grim battle for survival in Nagpur.
The scenario in Bihar
In Bihar, both the Dalit outfits – the Lok Janshakti Party of Chirag Paswan and Hindustani Awam Morcha of former chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi – are in the NDA. But here too the hold of these two leaders is, to an extent, confined to their castes Dussadhs or Paswans and Musahars or Bhuyans. As these two castes form just half of the 19.6% of the Dalit population, (as per the latest Castes Survey of 2023), the Rashtriya Janata Dal and Congress are trying their best to woo the rest half of the population. The three Communist constituents of the INDIA bloc, especially the CPI ML (Liberation), have a strong presence of SCs.
The other problem in Bihar is that there is a strong animosity between the LJP and the Janata Dal (United) rank and file. Chief minister Nitish Kumar has blamed LJP supremo Chirag Paswan for the poor performance of his party in the 2020 assembly polls. Chirag and his late father, Ram Vilas Paswan, have been extremely critical of Nitish for deliberately excluding their caste Dussadhs from the Mahadalit category. At the constituency level, JD(U) and LJP workers are not cooperating as they should in this crucial election.
On his part, Manjhi has several times earned the wrath of the BJP leaders for calling Lord Rama a mythical character. However, he recently visited the newly built Ram Mandir in Ayodhya, perhaps, to please his BJP masters rather than as a part of atonement.
As a large section of Dalits in Bihar are feeling let down by the NDA, they are drifting towards the INDIA bloc.
Reservation is dear to the Dalit community
There are some strong social, economic, and political reasons for people belonging to the Scheduled Castes community, and even the Scheduled Tribes, to fear debates over any constitutional amendment. Reservation in education, jobs, as well as in parliament and assemblies, as guaranteed in the Constitution, is necessary and dear to them for their economic survival.
Apart from this, they are emotionally linked to the present Constitution because Bhim Rao Ambedkar was among its main architects.
The challenge with the Scheduled Castes community, in particular, is that they still face human rights violations in many parts of India, especially in the rural areas. If any Ravidas, Mehtar, Valmiki, Dom, or even Dussadh, opens a tea stall, dhaba, food joint, sweet shop, or rear cattle to sell milk, there remains a possibility that many other social groups may not buy from them. As they are, generally, landless and have no business background, a government job is their best bet.
The job opportunities for them are already shrinking after the introduction of liberalisation, privatisation, and globalisation. It is the lurking apprehension of a constitutional shake-up that is turning many away from the BJP this time.
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