The Samajwadi Party, after its break-up with Bahujan Samaj Party, is preparing to make inroads into Dalit vote base. For the first time, the Samajwadi Party has sent a circular to all its district units to observe the death anniversary of Dr BR Ambedkar on December 6 in a big way by paying homage to the Dalit icon.
All district units of the party will hold various programmes on the occasion, including seminars.
Programmes will also be held in Dalit populated areas and they will underline the need for social equality and harmony.
Hoardings that will be put up on the occasion will have photographs of Samajwadi Party’s ideologue Dr Ram Manohar Lohia and Dr BR Ambedkar.
“The idea is to emphasise the fact that the ideology of both these leaders is in consonance and not opposed to each other,” said a party leader.
Socially, the Yadavs and the Dalits have been at daggers drawn for decades. After the BSP came to power in Uttar Pradesh and the political empowerment of Dalits began, the battle between OBCs and Dalits became even more pronounced.
The Bharatiya Janata Party, interestingly, has been taking advantage of this and has been wooing OBCs as well as Dalits since 2014.
The SP-BSP alliance for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, to an extent, diluted the discord but after BSP president Mayawati snapped ties with the SP after the polls, the SP started making efforts to win over Dalits, or at least a section of the community.
The move to observe Ambedkar’s death anniversary now could spell trouble for Mayawati who stands to lose her disgruntled supporters to SP.
A large number of BSP leaders have already joined the SP in recent months.