BJP relies on Yashpal Arya to woo Dalit voters

Neena Sharma

Tribune News Service

Dehradun, January 17

The BJP leadership has narrowed down on Yashpal Arya, an import from the Congress, to woo Dalit voters.

The BJP is eager to grab a major share of Dalit votes, which comprise 18.8 per cent of the total voting population. It has decided to bank on the disgruntled former Congress leader to widen its reach in the upcoming Assembly elections.

There has been a leadership vacuum in the BJP as far as the emergence of Dalit leaders is concerned.

In the short run, the party’s prospects in the coming elections seem bright with Yashpal Arya and Sanjeev Arya fighting on the party ticket. However, analysts say in the long run, the BJP has blocked the path of home grown leaders.

“If it plans to attract Dalit voters by bringing in more Dalit Congress leaders, the consequences will be disastrous for the overall health of the party. Already, there is growing disenchantment in the party. Leaders seem to have more faith in outsiders than those in the party,” said Manohar Kant Dhyani, a senior BJP leader.

Due to compulsions of electoral politics, the BJP has fielded SC candidates from the reserved Assembly segments in the state. But the leaders have failed to make a mark.

“In the organisation set up too, barring Khazan Das, who has been made general secretary in the state unit, and Suresh Rathore in Haridwar, the party has failed to bring Dalit faces on to the centre stage. Naturally, it has failed to groom leaders with a huge mass base after the creation of Uttarakhand. The BJP, as it did in Uttar Pradesh, has resorted to poaching BSP and Congress Dalit leaders,” said Ravinder Kataria, a BJP contender who was denied seat from Rajpur (SC).

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had given enough signals for the inclusion of Almora MP Ajay Tamta in his first Cabinet. The move did not fructify and his accession was sabotaged by a senior BJP leader and former Chief Minister.

However, Modi had his way and Tamta was made Minister for Textiles in the second expansion of the Cabinet. This exercise seemed still way short of winning Dalit voters in the 2017 elections and Arya’s disenchantment with the Congress and more specifically Chief Minister Harish Rawat came handy.

For the BJP seeking short-term results, Yashpal Arya’s 41 years of the Congress legacy as a Dalit leader seems hard to resist.