Continuing with its aggressive cause to woo tribals through different schemes along with the promise of 27 per cent reservation for other backward castes, the BJP in Madhya Pradesh recently observed Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar’s death anniversary and slammed the Congress for ignoring his contributions.
This is widely being seen as another extension of the BJP’s meticulous caste strategy, chalked out ahead of the 2023 assembly election.
Several party leaders paid tributes to the architect of the constitution with the party’s SC cell concluding ‘Samvidhan Gaurav Abhiyan’, which kickstarted on November 26. The party also underlined the fact that the Congress never built any national memorial to Dr Ambedkar, and that it was the BJP-led that had built one in his birthplace Mhow.
The Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led government also announced that it will name a proposed wildlife sanctuary after Dr Ambedkar, which will come up in Sagar district. In its organisational meetings, the BJP has already talked about focusing on tribals and Dalits.
Weeks ago, when the Congress raked up the issues of 27 per cent reservation for OBCs, the ruling party countered the move and determinedly pursued the issue in the high court. The HC, however, eventually declined to vacate the stay on the quota. Amid accusations by state Congress chief Kamal Nath that the BJP had been slack in putting up a fight before the HC, the state government even issued a notification implementing the increased quota in academic enrolments and government recruitments.
The move by the Congress of siding with OBCs was seen as a ploy to dent the BJP’s strong vote bank among backward castes. But the BJP hit back by intruding into the traditional vote bank of the Congress — the tribals.
The BJP observed tribal icon Birsa Munda’s birth anniversary with pomp and show in Bhopal by making Prime Minister Narendra Modi part of the function. Rejecting a demand by its own leaders of renaming the refurbished Habibganj railway station after late prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the BJP renamed it after tribal queen Kamlapati.
The party also observed tribal hero Tantya Bhil’s martyrdom day at a grand scale in Indore on December 4, renaming a railway station after him. On Tuesday, the state cabinet renamed Chhindwara University as Raja Shankar Shah University after the famous Gond king.
A senior Congress leader requesting anonymity said the party was trying dent the BJP’s OBC vote bank over the reservation issue but a well-prepared BJP had retaliated by wooing the tribals at a massive scale.
The BJP’s poll strategy tasted unlikely success when three-time Congress MLA Sulochna Rawat switched sides ahead of the recent bypoll and also notched up a victory. As the BJP dubbed it a big win inside Congress bastion, the setback left leaders of the grand old party fuming.
The BJP’s swiftness on caste equations finds its roots in the outcome of the 2018 assembly polls when the Congress succeeded in finding caste issues such as the dilution of the SC/ST Act and emergence of Samanya, Pichhra, Alpsankhyak Kalyan Sangthan, which galvanised upper castes and OBCs against reservation issues. Coupled with farm loan waiver, the formula edged the Congress closer to a majority mark.
A seasoned campaigner, Chouhan seems well prepared this time even with the Congress in a reactive mode. The party, too, observed Birsa Munda’s birth anniversary in Jabalour but it was a lacklustre affair. On Monday, Kamal Nath slammed the BJP’s events to woo tribals saying the state government could organise as many events for tribals, but the fact that MP topped the list of states in terms of atrocities and excesses towards tribals could not change.
Senior journalist Lalit Shastri said in accordance with the BJP’s national policy, Chouhan was putting up an aggressive campaign to woo scheduled tribes and scheduled castes. The polarisation peaked last time but was incomplete, so the BJP had intensified efforts to complete it this time, he added.
He said Chouhan seemed to be on the driving seat when it came to pleasing OBCs, SCs and STs.
Senior political analyst Girija Shankar, however, thinks otherwise. If the BJP’s strategy on caste equations was true, why had the Congress swept the polls in Gwalior region and suffered a whitewash in Vindhya given the fact that both regions have similar caste equations, Shankar said, adding that it was much to do with poll management, choice of candidates and other issues.
Asked about the BJP’s mega shows for tribals, Shankar said crowds were pulled in by the bureaucracy and such crowds did not guarantee poll wins. The better the poll management, more are your chances of a win, he added.
Shankar further said issues did not matter in polls, only contemporary emotive issue did.
With inputs from News18