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In Haryana, BJP eyes Dalit-OBC votes to expand support base

Gurgaon: In an attempt to consolidate non-Jat votes, the BJP state unit has targeted its campaign to win over OBC and Dalit voters, relying on three things – its trusted panna pramukhs, implementation of job reservations and its regular SC chaupals.

“Earlier, BJP was seen only as a party of upper caste voters and urban voters.

This changed under the aggressive social engineering strategy of the Modi-Shah duo. If it can get a chunk of OBC and Dalit votes in addition to support from the Brahmins, Punjabi and Baniya communities, it can get a comfortable majority,” said political analyst Kushal Pal.

In the 2014 assembly election , BJP won majority in Haryana on its own for the first time. The deciding factor had been the consolidation of non-Jat votes in a state where Jats have always played a decisive role. Of the 47 seats it won last time, nine were in SC-reserved constituencies. The state has 17 SC-reserved seats. With Congress also eyeing the Jat-Dalit voter base, which makes up about 45-50% of the total electorate, BJP has stepped things up a notch.

BJP has long been deploying its cadre base as panna pramukhs, or page in charges. One worker is allotted one page of the voter list booklet and is responsible for engaging with the voters listed there and initiating a two-way dialogue – asking them what they want and telling them what the party is doing. As of now, it has 3 lakh panna pramukhs and each is responsible for 50 families. “Our panna pramukhs are crucial to disseminating our party’s message,” said Jawahar Yadav, spokesperson of BJP’s Haryana unit. And they are chosen carefully — each panna pramukh is chosen from the community that plays a decisive role in the area she or he is responsible for. At the district level, too, the party has chosen OBC and Dalit leaders.

In 2018, the Khattar government announced more than 18,000 vacancies in Group D government jobs – as security guards, helpers, sewadars, chowkidars and safai karamcharis, among others. Academic criteria for chowkidar and safai karamchari jobs were done away with. The move gave the BJP a huge fillip in its efforts to consolidate the Dalit-OBC voter base. “Despite reservation, these communities would not get the jobs they were entitled to. Previous governments just ignored them,” said Ram Avtar Valmiki, chairperson of the party’s SC committee at Kalanaur in Rohtak.

What could be the final winning stroke is a simple one – SC chaupals and community centres. These chaupals are meeting points for villages, where they celebrate festivals and family events. “Our leaders attend these chaupals, celebrate with the people and even eat with them,” said Valmiki. In a society with marked caste dynamics, the act of eating together holds immense significance.

Congress, meanwhile, is going for the Jat-Dalit vote by projecting the Hooda-Selja ‘shared leadership’ model. Interim Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, reportedly asked Bhupinder Singh Hooda – a Jat stalwart – and Kumari Selja – a Dalit icon – to plan a coordinated campaign. It will also reach out to minorities like Meo Muslims.

However, political analysts argue, the failure to strike a deal with BSP supremo Mayawati, the most significant Dalit leader in northern India’s politics, could dampen the Grand Old Party’s plans. “A pre-poll alliance (with BSP) would have posed a real challenge to BJP. Congress and BSP, together, could have won over more than half the state’s electorate. In isolation, both parties will weaken their chances. BSP alone won’t manage to secure more than 4-6% of the votes – primarily because most votes will be diverted to different parties because of strategic ticket distribution,” said Pal, adding that factionalism and personality clashes will prevent the opposition from posing any real challenge to ruling BJP.

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