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On Ravidas Jayanti, BJP talks Ram temple’s Dalit connect

By, Lucknow
Feb 24, 2024 10:20 PM IST

Former Uttar Pradesh deputy chief minister and Rajya Sabha MP Dinesh Sharma, who was present at one of these outreach campaigns, said that it was a Dalit, who had placed the first brick for the Ram temple in Ayodhya.

The back-to-back birth anniversaries of saints who were born in Dalit families – Sant Gadge Maharaj (February 23) and Sant Ravidas (February 24) — saw the Bharatiya Janata Party launching a mass contact campaign among the community across the state.

BJP leaders at an outreach programme in Lucknow. (SOURCED)
BJP leaders at an outreach programme in Lucknow. (SOURCED)

At many places, the party’s upper caste leaders too were part of the outreach to give the message of “samrasta (social amity)” ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

Former Uttar Pradesh deputy chief minister and Rajya Sabha MP Dinesh Sharma, who was present at one of these outreach campaigns, said that it was a Dalit, who had placed the first brick for the Ram temple in Ayodhya.

“The majestic Ram temple, the first brick of which was laid by a Dalit, is now ready and people from all walks of life are visiting it. The BJP is the only party which cares for all castes and communities and respects great leaders born in those communities,” Sharma said.

The reference to Ram temple among the Dalit-contact campaign was important as the BJP had used the Ram temple build-up in the 1990s to unite Hindus in the post-Mandal era.

Since the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, Dalits, along with OBCs, have been the mainstay of the BJP’s phenomenal wins.

At many places, party cadres were seen carrying brochures of various schemes meant for the community.

“The party contacted at over 1396 places on the birth anniversary of Sant Gadge and on Sant Ravidas’s anniversary today, while the final figures would be available later, we estimate that the mass contact would be even greater than Friday,” said SC Kannaujia, who heads BJP’s Scheduled Caste cell in the state.

At a Dalit locality near Mithaiwala crossing in Gomtinagar, party leader Neeraj Singh accompanied Kannaujia during the outreach. As part of this exercise, the party also talked about the various initiatives of the double engine BJP governments for the community.

BJYM TO HOLD NAMO CHAUPALS IN U.P.

Bhartiya Janata Party’s yuva morcha (BJYM) will hold “NaMo yuva chaupal” in over 10,000 wards across 35000 villages of the state in the run up to 2024 Lok Sabha polls. NaMo is an acronym for Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“We intend to connect with 30 lakh youths through the initiative and will apprise them with the party’s ideology,” UP BJYM chief Pranshu Dutt Dwivedi said on Saturday ahead of BJYM’s national meet in Nagpur on March 4.

The U.P. BJYM had emerged as the best party unit across the country to hold “nav matdata sammelan (new voter meets)” at over 900 places. The BJYM claimed participation of nine lakh plus youth in these meets.

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