BJP’s pro-Dalit policies beat Congress quota narrative: Experts

NEW DELHI: BJP swept all the seven seats reserved for Scheduled Castes in Jammu, while bagging eight of the 17 in Haryana, leading its functionaries to claim that Congress’s allegation that the Modi govt was conspiring to scrap caste quotas has petered out.In 2019, BJP had won five seats reserved for SCs in Haryana while Congress won six. In the 2014 polls in Jammu & Kashmir, before delimitation in 2022 which resulted in an increase of seats from 83 to 90, BJP won five seats reserved for SCs in Jammu and Congress bagged one.

Speaking at the post-poll celebrations at BJP headquarters on Tuesday evening, PM Narendra Modi had highlighted BJP’s strong performance in constituencies reserved for SCs.

Dalits ditch Congress in Jammu and Kashmir

“People have seen through the falsehood Rahul Gandhi spread during Lok Sabha polls,” Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan, who was in-charge of BJP’s Haryana campaign, said.

The highest winning margin among reserved seats in Haryana was recorded in Pataudi, where BJP’s Bimla Chaudhary defeated Congress’s Pearl Choudhary by 46,530 votes. In Jammu, the largest winning margin was seen in Akhnoor constituency, where BJP’s Mohan Lal defeated Congress’s Ashok Kumar by 24,679 votes.

Anand Kumar, retired professor of sociology at JNU, said BJP’s improved showing in Haryana was because of Congress’s projection of B S Hooda as its CM candidate at the cost of Kumari Selja, former Union minister and the party’s biggest Dalit face in Haryana. The two previous tenures of Hooda were identified with Jat hegemony and instances of high-handedness against Dalits, especially the killing of two Dalits in Mirchpur.

BJP talked up the incidents during the campaign, besides accusing Congress of marginalising Selja because of her Dalit background. The party also supported the demand for sub-categorisation of Dalits in the state to ensure that the benefits of quotas travel beyond the Jatavs to the more disadvantaged SC categories: a social agglomerate of several castes which put together match the numbers of Jatavs, the single most numerically preponderant Dalit caste in the state.

Dr Manoj Kumar, a political commentator who teaches at Delhi University, said the Modi govt’s focus on “inclusive development” since 2014 has led to many sections of SCs developing a positive view of BJP. “Congress’s narrative may have worked before the Lok Sabha elections but it was unlikely to resonate forever,” he said.

Prof Ashwini Kumar of the School of Development Studies put Congress’s dismal showing in the SC seats of Jammu, and rise of BJP’s share in the ones in Haryana to the latter’s weakness against the Modi-led saffron outfit in bipolar contexts. “This is a reflection of their general weakness,” he said.

Courtesy : TOI

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