With Congress getting support of prominent Dalit leader Jignesh Mevani in the upcoming Gujarat elections, the BJP has decided to up its game and field Union Minister and influential national Dalit leader Ram Vilas Paswan for its campaign.
The Union Minister of Food and Public Distribution, Consumer Affairs and the founder of Lok Janshakti Party was, however, not part of BJP's mega campaign during the UP Assembly polls earlier this year.
But this time around, not only will Paswan campaign for the BJP, he is seen as the answer for Mevani. The minister will have a packed schedule in Gujarat.
Paswan will be addressing a press conference at BJP Media Centre at Sola in Ahmedabad on Saturday and will also participate in BJP’s door to door round programme as part of Gujarat Gaurav Sampark Abhiyan.
He will also address a public meeting in Danilimda assembly seat, where Dalits constitute 20 per cent of total votes.
Besides, the BJP has also roped in its own Dalit leaders. Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment Thawar Chand Gehlot, who is a Rajya Sabha MP from Madhya Pradesh and Minister of State for Water Resources Arjun Ram Meghwal, MP from Bikaner in Rajasthan are already camping there.
Besides, Lok Sabha member from Uttar Pradesh's Kaushambi Vinod Kumar Sonkar is also in Gujarat. He was last year appointed as National President of BJP’s SC Morcha ahead of UP Assembly elections last year.
All the three leaders are prominent Dalit leaders of BJP in their respective states.
The tour programme of Paswan, has come at time when Mevani, who has led Dalit agitations across the state against the incumbent BJP government, has now announced that he will ask his supporters not to vote for BJP and met Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi over a week ago.
Paswan had strongly been defending the Narendra Modi government’s track record vis s vis Dalit upliftment and backed the government categorically even after the Una Dalit bashing incident, insulating BJP from it and saying that no government in independent India has done as much for Dalits as the Modi government. He also had said that it was PM Modi, who gave Dalit icon BR Ambedkar his real due.
The media-savvy Paswan is addressing the press from key Gujarat city Ahmedabad, where Mevani resides and had organised a ‘Dalit Asmita Yatra’ from Ahmedabad to Una in August last year after the attack on some Dalits in Una by alleged cow vigilantes in July 2016.
There are 13 seats reserved for Dalits in Gujarat and they comprise of 7 per cent of total electorates in the state.
