Patna,(BiharTimes): It would be early to say whether the Ambedkar Jyanti rally would help the BJP consolidate its position among Dalits. But one thing is clear: the Amit Shah-Rajnath Singh show has exposed divisions within the state BJP.
Nothing could be more humiliating than the way the Buxar party MP Ashwani Choubey was virtually debarred from the Gandhi Maidan . He was compelled to sit with the workers for a few minutes, than he left in a huff.Whether the instruction to slam the door on his face came from the top or from the state level leadership may or may not be known, but it has certainly sent a very wrong signal.Choubey may be known for his harsh and bitter comments, but he is a devoted partyman with firm RSS roots.
He was not involved in any corruption and criminal charge as several other party leaders. Nor does he represents the ruffian lot.“Yet the way he was treated is simply shocking and unbelieving,” says a political observer. “How can a party hope to win Assembly election if it treats its trusted MPs in such a way. See what happened to the Patna Saheb MP Shatrughan Sinha,” he went on to add.The other thing is that though it was a rally meant to woo the Dalits, no big Scheduled Caste face of the party was projected on the occasion.Hardly much was spoken about Ambedkar. Home minister Rajnath Singh, who spoke for much longer time than Amit Shah, had a few words of praise for the architect of the Indian Constitution. Sushil Kumar Modi talked about the humiliation meted out to the former mahadalit chief minister, Jitan Ram Manjhi.
Perhaps SuMo wanted to undo his past mistake. After all it was he who humiliated mahadalits when he demanded the arrest and prosecution of Manjhi when he was the CM.Amit Shah spoke for only 11 minutes. He has hardly anything new to say.Is this the way the saffron party plans to retain 42 per cent
Dalit votes which it got in the last Lok Sabha election––highest in Bihar’s history.It seems that at present the BJP lacks the skill to increase the Dalit votes. It is relying only on the capability of Jitan Ram Manjhi to divide the Dalit votes of the JD(U)-RJD combine.
But it is a risky business and Manjhi may end up cutting the Dalit votes of both the BJP and the ruling combination of Bihar. If this happens than the BJP can not hope to do very well.
Recalls a journalist formerly associated with the Hindustan Times: “Manjhi alone is not a big force. Ram Vilas Paswan is a much bigger Dalit leader and comes from numerically and socially much stronger Dalit sub-caste, Dussadh, but his party always ended up getting around 6-7 per cent votes.” True after his split with Lalu Prasad he paved the way for RJD’s defeat in 2005 Assembly election. But one can not ignore the fact that in 2005 even Congress left the RJD while the JD(U) and BJP fought unitedly. After 2010 Assembly election LJP was virtually decimated and now it has not a single MLA in Bihar.
While the BJP got unexpectedly high Dalit votes last year (42 per cent) it would be a big challenge to improve or even retain this performance. The April 14 rally hardly did anything to enthuse the Dalits.The party would have to do more than just wish that Manjhi would divide the Dalit votes of JD(U)-RJD combine. These two parties together got 30 per cent Dalit votes––JD(U) 20 per cent and RJD-Congress 10 per cent. If they managed to retain even about one-third of SC votes they may still be in contest.
