Who will win the hearts of Dalits and Adivasis in the Rajasthan Assembly polls?

This time, the Dalit groups in Rajasthan have released a ‘Dalit Manifesto’.

Despite the high population and influential voting percentage, both major political parties have ignored the Dalit and Tribal leadership in the state. (File)

Rajasthan Assembly polls: In the desert state of Rajasthan, 34 of the 200 assembly segments have been reserved for the candidates from Scheduled Castes (SCs) and 25 for the Scheduled Tribes (STs). Seven of the 25 Lok Sabha seats are reserved for Scheduled Castes and Tribes. These two reserved categories together account for about 32% of Rajasthan’s total votes, making it the largest voting bloc, followed by Jats with 15% votes. While Dalits constitute 17.8% of the state’s population, tribals constitute 13.5%. Besides the 34 reserved seats, there are another 53 seats with a significant number of SC voters. Same is the case with the tribals as they can influence the results in 10 more seats than the reserved ones. So, in addition to the 59 reserved seats, Dalit and Tribal voters can influence another 60 seats.

Traditionally, these voters preferred the Congress Party until the emergence of the BJP as a strong candidate for these votes in the last decade of the 20th century. In the last two Lok Sabha elections, the saffron party has won all the reserved seats in the state by large margins. But the parliamentary elections tell a different story. In the year 2018, the BJP could win only 12 seats reserved for the Scheduled Caste and 9 ST seats, while the Congress won 19 and 16 and three went to independent candidates. But in the 2013 Assembly elections, the BJP won 18 and 25 seats, while the Congress bagged 16 reserved seats. At that time, the BJP had won 163 seats, while the Congress’s tally in the 200-member Assembly had fallen to just 21 MLAs. The bottom line is that whoever wins the maximum number of reserved constituencies will come to power in the state. That is why both political parties are working hard to convince voters. The Congress government has passed a bill to set aside a special amount for the SC and ST development funds. Under the Rajasthan State Scheduled Castes And Scheduled Tribes Development Fund (Planning, Allocation And Utilization Of Financial Resources) Bill, 2022, the state allocates development funds to these communities and issues separate orders for the allocation from year to year. according to their share in the population. The Congress government has increased the allocation to Rs 1.32 lakh crores in the year 2021-22, compared to Rs 1.10 lakh crores in 2020-21. This bill is seen as an attempt by Congress to retain the SC/ST votes that helped it come to power in 2018.

Another claimant for the Scheduled Caste votes is the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) led by former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati. The BSP secured 4% votes and 6 seats in the year 2018. But all the legislators switched sides and merged with the rioting Congress party and repeated the scene of 2008. It makes the BSP voters disenchanted and confused about the future. The disillusioned BSP voter will by all means find his place in the ruling Congress or the BJP. But this time, Bhim Army leader Chandrashekhar Azad Ravan has extended support to the Hanuman Beniwal-led RLP. RLP won two SC seats in the last elections and BTP, a party formed by the tribals, had also won two seats in Mewar region.

But Rajasthan is infamous for being identified as the state with “the second most number of atrocities against Dalits”, according to the data released by the National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB). According to the figures, the second highest number of atrocities against Dalits in the country took place in Rajasthan in 2021. Rajasthan previously ranked third in 2020 on this parameter. To raise this issue, the BJP is raising this issue and protesting after each and every such case of atrocity. The BJP leaders in their political speeches are making ‘atrocities against Dalits’ one of the issues against the Gehlot-led dispensation.

Despite the high population and influential voting percentage, both major political parties have ignored the Dalit and Tribal leadership in the state. Only one Dalit leader could win the highest seat in the state. Jagannath Pahadiya is the only exception in the Congress party who held the post of state chief minister in 1980, only for a year.

This time, the Dalit groups in Rajasthan have released a ‘Dalit Manifesto’. The manifesto calls for identifying areas prone to atrocities in the state’s newly created districts. In 2018, the BJP’s poor performance can be attributed to the violence during the Bandh, which was called by the SC and ST communities to protest against the Supreme Court’s order on the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act . Today, withdrawal of cases registered during the 2018 unrest is still part of the Dalit agenda. The Dalit Agenda also aims to open a Dalit school at the district level.

The BJP this time denied a ticket to former Vidhan Sabha chairman and octogenarian Dalit leader Kailash Meghwal from Shahpura, who accused his party colleague and Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal of corruption. The question now is, in Kailash’s absence, will Arjun be able to secure votes for the saffron party to climb the power ladder? The state will go to the polls in a single phase on November 25.

By Ravindra Singh Sheoran

(Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed above are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of India.com. Any content provided by bloggers or authors is their opinion and is not intended to defame any religion, ethnic group, club, organization, company, individual or anyone else.)