Lucknow: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Uttar Pradesh has drawn up a detailed plan to mobilise the party organisation for the upcoming 2019 Lok Sabha elections and also assuage the feelings of dalits who have been angry with the party on the issue of dilution of the SC/ST Act.
The BJP, while focussing on dalits, will also sharpen its Hindutva agenda so that it can dilute the impact of casteism which serves to divide Hindus.
The Bhartiya Yuva Janata Morcha (BYJM) had been entrusted the responsibility of bringing first time voters into the BJP fold. Those who will be voting for the first time in 2019 have been named “millennium voters” and the idea is obviously to catch them young.
The BYJM will be launching its “Samrasta” programme from April 14 which is the anniversary of dalit ideologue Dr Ambedkar and the programme will continue till December 6, which happens to be the death anniversary of Dr Ambedkar.
In this seven month programme, the BYJM will make an effort to bring together youth, cutting across caste lines, from the booth level to the division level. Community lunches will be organised during these programmes.
The BJP plans to build up a task force of at least 10 youths at every booth in the state for the general elections and at least four of the 10 youth will belong to dalit community.
Dalit ministers, legislators and MPs in the BJP like Krishna Raj and Dr Ram Shankar Katehria will actively participate in the programme. “We are compiling data of various central sponsored schemes and since Dalits have been the biggest beneficiaries of these schemes, we will be showcasing this before the Dalits to prove out point that the Modi and Yogi government have worked for the benefit of deprived sections of society”, said a party leader.
UP BJP president Dr Mahendra Nath Pandey said, “Nearly 87 per cent of the Dalit MLAs in UP assembly belong to BJP and 66 Dalit MPs from the 131 reserved seats in Lok Sabha belong to BJP. This proves that Dalits have realised the fraud that was being perpetuated on them by so -called pro-Dalit parties (read BSP)”.
The general secretary of the Yuva Morcha, Abhijat Misra said, “Our endeavour is to create unity (‘Samrasta’) and make the youth rise above barriers of caste. We will tell them that their role in national building can be defined through unity and other parties try to divide them for electoral gains”.
