Congress takes Dalit detour
By Manish Anand
New Delhi, Oct. 1: While Rahul Gandhi has walked for about 624 kms in his ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’, Congress has dropped clear hints that the party is working at reviving its old social engineering.
Karnataka goes to the polls in another seven months, and the state still has strong Congress cadre base along with leadership pool. Karnataka has 23 per cent Dalit vote base, with not less than 36 Assembly seats bearing their electoral signature.
In Siddaramaiah, the former Chief Minister of Karnataka, Congress has an other backward caste face, while Mallikarjuna Kharge brings in the Dalit appeal in the poll bound state.
While Lok Sabha MP Shashi Tharoor is also contesting the election for the Congress president, dissidents in the party have been stumped by the Dalit choice, as the Gandhis finally picked up Kharge.
Political observers have by and large a consensus opinion that Dalit and tribal backgrounds are significant shields for any leader. Thus, Kharge, predictably, has been endorsed by dissidents and naysayers in Congress for the election of the president post.
This has left Tharoor off track, for he said that it was strange for the G23 (Dissident group) members not to back him despite seeking election for the post of president.
The Bharatiya Janata Party by picking up Droupadi Murmu showed the strength of such background in the electoral politics, as even the constituents of the Opposition had to back her in the poll.
Congress has seemingly taken a cue from the BJP’s textbook with Kharge as the choice for the party chief. It has been seen that the BJP MPs were not as aggressive against Kharge in the Lok Sabha as they are against his successor Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury apparently for his Dalit background.
“The BJP cannot go all out against Kharge, for Dalits associate with him,” said a senior BJP functionary.
Congress on Saturday took forward its Dalit work further by naming Brijlal Khabri, an old associate of Bahujan Samaj Party Kansi Ram, as the chief of the Uttar Pradesh unit.
Congress holds on to the Dalit-Tribal vote base in states such as Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Karnataka, and Kerala.
With Kharge and Khabri, Congress’ game plan is clear that the party will be working on Dalit-OBC-Muslim equations.
Besides Khabri, Naseemuddin Siddiqui, the number two of BSP supremo Mayawati in her heydays, is also in Congress. Congress is clearly eying the BSP vote base of Dalit-Muslim, as Mayawati is seen electorally fading away on account for excessive her on ground inactivity.
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