Lucknow: Political parties in UP are set to vie for the legacy of Dalit icon BR Ambedkar on his 135th birth anniversary on Tuesday amid a spiralling clamour for the electorally significant dalit bloc ahead of the high-stakes assembly elections early next year.The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will make an assertive bid to reach out to the dalit community by organising events in every district. It follows Yogi Adityanath’s announcement to facelift statues of dalit icons, including Ambedkar, in every assembly seat.On Monday, BJP state president and union minister Pankaj Chaudhary turned up in Congress stronghold Rae Bareli to unveil a renovated statue of Ambedkar, which was desecrated in Dec last year by miscreants. The statue is in Bachhrawan reserved assembly seat, which the Samajwadi Party (SP) wrested from the BJP ally Apna Dal (S) in the 2022 Assembly elections.Interestingly, the event was organised under the direct watch of an SP turncoat and two-time former MLA Ram Babu Akela, a Jatav. Akela joined the BJP in 2022 after being denied a ticket by SP.Analysts said that while renovation of Ambedkar’s statue signalled BJP’s visibility among the Dalit electorate, the district-level programmes aimed to convert symbolic gestures into booth-level gains.The SParty has also planned to ratchet up its dalit outreach by organising events in the SC-dominated rural pockets of the state. The party has asked its dalit offshoot — SP Ambedkar Vahini — to meet the dalit masses and “expose” the BJP’s “nefarious designs” of fiddling with constitutional safeguards guaranteed to the SC communities.National general secretary of SP Ambedkar Vahini Ram Babu Sudarshan said that besides highlighting the party’s Pichhda, Dalit, Alpsankhyak (PDA) poll agenda, the party would expose the “hidden nexus” between the BJP and BSP chief Mayawati in the run-up to the 2027 assembly elections.SP’s strong performance in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections has boosted its confidence to expand beyond its traditional Yadav-Muslim base.SP ally Congress has tasked its foot soldiers to hold `Pad-yatras’ in various assembly seats to mobilise the SC community. Congress spokesperson Anshu Awasthi said that the party would also organise `sahboj’ (community feast) with the dalits.Analysts said that while Congress lacks organisational strength in UP, it is trying to remain relevant within the SP-led alliance framework by wooing dalits.The Mayawati-led BSP, at the same time, plans to organise a mega event at Ambedkar memorial in Lucknow, in what is poised to be a show of strength by the party to consolidate its core Dalit vote bank. BSP state president Vishwanath Pal said that the party has been the true champion of the rights of socially oppressed classes.BSP has faced a key challenge of eroding vote share in recent elections due to BJP’s outreach and SP’s emerging PDA strategy. Analysts said that BSP was no longer expanding but defending its ever-shrinking dalit space.
