Ambedkar is ticket to finale for UP polls

Dr Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar is gradually emerging as a ticket to finale in the upcoming UP Assembly elections. All major political parties are making a concerted bid to project Dr Ambedkar as their icon and win over dalit votes that hold the crucial key to power with almost 23 per cent votes.

The latest to join the bandwagon is the ruling Samajwadi Party. The Samajwadis, till now, had flaunted Dr Ram Manohar Lohia as their ideologue but the Akhilesh government is now going all out to raise a toast to Dr Ambedkar. UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav has announced a “befitting memorial” for Dr Ambedkar in the upcoming Chak Gajaria IT City on the outskirts of Lucknow.

Mr Akhilesh Yadav’s announcement comes shortly after BSP president Mayawati announced that the Samajwadi government was showing disrespect to dalit icons by neglecting the dalit memorials and stated that she would avenge this humiliation in the elections.

The Samajwadi Party, it may be recalled, had criticised the expenditure on memorials during its 2012 election campaign and Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav had even announced that h would open schools and hospitals in these memorials to put them to better use.

The SP now seems to have realise the need for dalit votes now and last month, the chief minister even announced a holiday on Dr Ambedkar’s death anniversary — a holiday that he had cancelled after coming to power.

The BJP, on its part, is also going all out to eulogise Dr Ambedkar. Apart from organising a series of functions to mark the dalit leader’s 125th birth anniversary, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on his visit to Lucknow on January 22, will visit the Ambedkar Mahasabha office and pay his respects to the urn containing Ambedkar’s ashes that are kept there.

The BSP, which had been the sole custodian of dalit votes till 2014 when the party lost its vote bank to the BJP, is now desperately trying to regain lost ground. Ms Mayawati has been repeatedly warning dalits against the gameplan of the BJP.

And also the anti-dalit policies of the ruling SP. In all her speeches and interactions with dalit leaders, she has been “informing” her voters about how the BJP used their votes to come to power but the Modi government has not done anything for them in the past one-and-a-half years.

“The fight for dalit votes in UP is going to intensify and may even get uglier because the BJP and SP have realised that the dalit vote bank is completely transferable and does not get easily divided. There are attempts to promote dalit leaders in their parties even at the cost of ignoring their own traditional vote banks. How far the ploy works, remains to be seen,” said R.K. Gautam, a dalit writer.