Ram Vilas Paswan dismisses Janata Parivar: ‘Sau langde don’t make a pehalwan’

Dalit face of NDA

Paswan is aiming to be the credible Dalit face in the BJP-led NDA camp for the UP elections, where Mayawati will pitch for a return to power riding on anti-incumbency, and where the BJP does not yet have a Dalit state leader big enough to mobilise the crucial votebank.

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The LJP said this is in line with strategy agreed upon with the BJP. “We expect by 2017, our party will be able to affect a transfer of significant chunk of the Dalit votes into the alliance we are part of… As of now, we are focusing on eastern UP,” party MP and Paswan’s son Chirag Paswan told The Indian Express.

Monday’s programme was the second after a similar rally LJP held in Lucknow in December last year.

The mahapanchayat, held at Cutting Memorial School Ground in Varanasi, saw a few thousand Dalits in attendance. While describing the upcoming Janata Parivar as political opportunism, Paswan criticised BSP chief Mayawati for her “high-handedness” and accused Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav of opposing the land acquisition bill to gain political mileage.

‘Foes-turned-friends’

Slamming Janata Parivar — the coming together of RJD, SP and JD(U) and others — Paswan said: “Most of these parties were at loggerheads with each other and many leaders involved in scandals and scams. Now, they are trying to come together hoping to gain whatever they can… Sau langde mil kar ek pehalwan nahi ban sakte.”

On Mayawati, Paswan said her policies may have had some substance, but her intentions were not right. “She sits on the dais alone, while others sit beneath, as if they were bandhua mazdoor (bonded labourers),” he said.

Pitches for land bill

Paswan, also the Union Food Minister, claimed that those opposing land bill in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar were looking for political mileage. “States like Maharashtra and Gujarat, which are much bigger, are not opposing the bill. But states like UP and Bihar, which badly need development, are opposing it,” he added. Chirag Paswan, who heads the party’s parliamentary board, also attended the mahapanchayat.

LJP secretary general Abdul Khaliq said: “In the last few years, parties in Bihar and UP have created divisions between Dalits, by bringing in terms like Mahadalits, or favouring a particular sub-caste among them. The LJP is trying to bring together the entire Dalit clan in UP and Bihar. They have a good presence on the UP-Bihar border. We will contest the Bihar elections later this year as part of NDA.”

Asked if this will lead to a conflict as BJP too was trying to woo Dalits, Khaliq said: “This is not the case. We will fight in tandem with the NDA, both in Bihar and UP elections.”

Claiming that Varanasi was an important transition point for anybody going from Bihar to Delhi or western UP, LJP’s national secretary (Youth Wing) Imtiyaz Ahmed, said: “Plus, it is the PM’s constituency. Therefore, a message from here will go far and wide. Party heads and senior leaders not only from UP but also from Bihar and MP attended the mahapanchayat.”

Under Modi’s watch

Party sources said the Paswans got the “mandate” to be more active in Uttar Pradesh from Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who had — after the 2014 Lok Sabha polls — told Paswan to be more visible in UP. Paswan had also travelled to Badaun last year to do a recce of the village where Dalit girls were gangraped and murdered. The party claims it is also going to launch a membership drive in the state soon.

While Mayawati lost over 7 per cent of her traditional votebank in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP’s vote share among Dalits had doubled from 12 per cent to 24 per cent. The BJP won all the 17 SC-reserved seats in the state. If this can be attributed to the Modi wave, then the chance of replicating it in the 2017 UP elections without a Dalit face of its own would be difficult, NDA sources said.

The Paswans hope to fill this “political vacancy”. Moreover, UP is home to around 4 per cent Paswans. “The Dalit household Rahul Gandhi (Congress vice-president) ever visited in UP were all Paswan families. The significance of the Paswan vote cannot be overlooked,” Khalique said.

WITH ENS, DELHI