With an eye on Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections in 2017, BJP is out to woo the Dalit vote bank of BSP which is struggling to keep its flock intact.

Lucknow: With an eye on Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections in 2017, BJP is out to woo the Dalit vote bank of BSP which is struggling hard to keep its flock intact.

BJP, which has all the 17 Lok Sabha seats reserved for Scheduled Castes in the state in its kitty, sent out a loud and clear message by fielding Laxman Acharya, a Dalit, as its first candidate in the recent Legislative Council election and recently brought former DGP Brij Lal in the party fold to bolster its Dalit image.

The party is in touch with several BSP leaders, who are feeling isolated or been expelled from the party in the recent past, a senior BJP leader said on condition of anonymity.

"The party launched a special membership drive for the Scheduled Castes after the Lok Sabha polls and there are instructions from the high command that senior leaders visit areas dominated by Dalits during the ongoing membership drive," he said.

Claiming that some BSP leaders were in touch with the BJP leadership, he said a former BSP MP and party coordinator, who was expelled recently, is in touch. "BJP believes that its main fight in the Assembly elections will be against ruling Samajwadi Party as BSP is still struggling to recover from its dismal show in the Lok Sabha polls when it drew a blank," he said.

"With senior functionaries deserting BSP, the party has not been able to regroup its cadres and our strategy is to make this best of this scenario," he said. When contacted, BJP spokesman Vijay Bahadur Pathak said, "Our policy is 'sabka saath - sabka vikas' and so it is natural for us to work with all sections of society."

"In the ongoing membership drive, we are getting support of all sections of the society ... the magic of those who follow the divisive and casteist politics is on the wane," he claimed.

BSP supremo Mayawati has, however, repeatedly stressed that her party's Dalit vote bank was intact but did not take risk of annoying her cadre and fielded Dalits as candidates in the Rajya Sabha polls. Explaining her party's decision to field Dalits for Rajya Sabha polls, Mayawati had said as her party could win only two seats, she preferred to give both the tickets to Dalits.

She again reposed faith in Dalit candidates Dharamvir Ashok and Pradeep in the recent Legislative Council polls, besides Leader of the Opposition in the Upper House Naseemuddin Siddiqui. Mayawati's worries also emanate from the fact that the two other leaders considered to have sway over Dalit votes - Ram Vilas Paswan and Udit Raj - are presently in the BJP-led NDA camp.

BSP is also concerned over the manner in which BJP had tried to "capitalise" on the tiff between Dalits and Muslims over removal of a loudspeaker from a Dalit temple in Kanth area of Moradabad district last year with several BJP MPs and legislators making a beeline to the disturbed area. BSP considers it as BJP's long-term plan to garner support of the Dalits.

Besides blaming the "wrong policies" of UPA-II, which it was backing, for its failure in the Lok Sabha polls, BSP believes BJP took advantage of the divide created by Hindu- Muslim clashes in Muzaffarnagar and managed to woo a sizable number of loyal BSP voters among the Jatav (Dalit) community in western UP.

A BSP leader, when contacted, said a particular caste accounting for 65 percent of Dalit vote bank is firmly with the party and all political parties are vying with each other to get support of other castes to project their hold over the Scheduled Castes.

PTI