With Dalit votes at stake, SP, BSP battle over Kanshi Ram's legacy

Come March 15 and the Samajwadi Party (SP) will celebrate Kanshi Ram’s (1934-2006) birth anniversary to rekindle the memory of the Dalit icon, and its own founder Mulayam Singh Yadav (1939-2022). Both had challenged the upper-caste Kamandal politics in the 1990s by giving the slogan “Mile Mulayam Kanshi Ram... (Mulayam and Kanshi Ram join hands)”.

The SP is keen to leverage the Kanshi Ram legacy to reach out to the Dalit voters of Uttar Pradesh, a year before the state goes to Assembly elections. However, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremeo Mayawati, the protégé of Kanshi Ram, is not impressed.

PDA Day

The SP, which is eyeing a return to power next year, has decided to observe Kashi Ram's birth anniversary as PDA Day, linking the occasion with its successful electoral slogan and strategy of PDA (Pichda, Dalit, Alpsankhyak) and its workers across the state have already started preparations.

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However, Mayawati has objected to the SP’s plans and reminded people of the notorious guest house incident of 1995 in Lucknow, when SP workers allegedly attacked her after her party withdrew support from the alliance government.

She slammed the SP, known to be arch-rivals to the BSP in state politics, calling it “anti-Dalit”, “anti-OBC”, “anti-BSP” and “casteist” and called the plan to celebrate Kanshi Ram’s birth anniversary a “pure political theatrics”.

Dalit atrocities allegations

In a lengthy post on X in Hindi, she recalled the guest-house incident to say, “…on June 2, 1995, the Lucknow State Guest House incident was orchestrated, leading to a murderous attack on me—all of which stands recorded not only in official government records but also in the pages of history as an act of black cruelty.” The BSP leader said her party had decided to withdraw support from the coalition government led by Mulayam Singh since it allegedly did not care to put a stop to atrocities against the Dalits and other weaker sections.

She also alleged in the post that the SP has in the past insulted Kanshi Ram, too, by changing the names of districts and public institutions, such as a university and hospital named after the late Dalit leader, when in power.

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In the post, Mayawati appealed to her party’s support base to remain aware of the SP’s actions, clearly implying her intent to shield her voters ahead of next year’s elections. The BSP last tasted power in Lucknow between 2007 and 2012 and also failed to deliver in the last few Lok Sabha elections.

SP eyes 'D' votes

However, the SP was determined to go forward with its plan. With ‘D’ (Dalits) remaining a key constituent of its PDA strategy, the party led by Akhilesh Yadav is preparing to send a special message to the community. As part of its celebrations on Kanshi Ram’s birth anniversary, the SP has also conceived a ‘Dalit Jodo Abhiyan’, which will kick off the same day with an aim to connect with the Dalit electorate. Other events will also be organised across the state.

Several party officials and functionaries will take part in the events. Akhilesh has especially written to all district presidents, office-bearers and public representatives asking them to hold special programmes at each nook and corner of UP where tributes will be paid to Kanshi Ram and the unity of the PDA stressed.

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People from the Dalit community should be specially included in these programmes, the SP chief instructed, besides educating the public representatives of the party about the history of Kanshi Ram launching a movement in support of the Mandal Commission and the common ground between him and Mulayam, Akhilesh’s father, saw the BSP and SP coming together in governance in 1993.

Kanshi Ram had intensified the movement for the Bahujan Samaj by making an agreement with Samajwadi Party founder Mulayam Singh Yadav in 1993.

The guest-house attack incident occurred less than two years later.

Mayawati's rally

The SP’s move, eyeing the Dalit vote, is being seen as a major electoral ploy to regain power after two successive terms of BJP-led NDA government in UP. Last October, Mayawati held a massive rally in the state capital, which political observers called her “comeback rally”, aiming to show that the BSP is still not a spent force and the Dalit community’s connection with Kanshi Ram can still prove to be effective.

The SP is now aiming to claim a piece of the cake by rekindling the old camaraderie of Kanshi Ram and its own founder Mulayam, and also projecting Mayawati as someone soft on the BJP and its governments both in New Delhi and Lucknow.

It has also accused the BSP of being the BJP’s ‘B’ team. According to the SP, Kanshiram is an icon of the Bahujan community, and the BSP can’t claim to have a copyright on him.

'Kanshi Ram for all'

“Kanshi Ram worked for social justice. He cannot belong to anybody in particular. No one should object to celebrating his birth anniversary. Mayawati has been supporting the same BJP against which Kanshi Ram fought. The path she has taken the BSP on was not the late icon’s path,” SP spokesperson Fakhrul Hasan Chand told The Federal.

Claiming the SP to be a true well-wisher of the Bahujan Samaj, he said, “Even when long-time BSP leaders such as Naseemuddin Siddiqui and Phool Babu joined the SP, Akhilesh Yadav hinted at this saying ‘we socialists are fighting for the Bahujans’.”

Political analysts believe that with the Assembly elections just over a year away, the SP knows this move on Kanshi Ram could yield political benefits, all the more since the BSP is not at its best at the moment in UP politics.

In the 2022 elections, a large part of Dalit votes went to the BJP in the form of “beneficiaries of government scheme”. This section mainly consisted of the ‘non-Jatav’ voters. Whereas voters of Mayawati's own caste (Jatav) remained with her.

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According to data from New Delhi’s Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, 27 per cent of non-Jatav votes went to the BSP while 41 per cent of non-Jatav votes went to the NDA in that election.

Cautious messaging

In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the SP-Congress alliance got more than half (56 per cent) of the non-Jatav votes. The BSP secured 15 per cent while the NDA got 29 per cent. During the general elections, a large section of Dalit voters was attracted by the SP due to the 'Save the Constitution' narrative of the SP-Congress alliance. While that is not an issue in the upcoming state polls, the SP still wants to remain the Dalits’ favourites by giving them the message that only it can fight their battle.

According to senior journalist Manmohan, “Message delivery is crucial in politics, and it’s not that Dalits can’t see any other option besides the BSP. If that were the case, the BJP wouldn't have received Dalit votes in the last Assembly elections (2022), nor would the SP-Congress alliance have received Dalit votes in the Lok Sabha elections (2024). Therefore, it’s not surprising that the SP is trying to secure the Dalit votes. Leaders like Naseemuddin, who worked with Kanshi Ram, are now in the SP. However, Akhilesh Yadav has a key task, and that is to address the conflict between Dalits and Yadavs, something that has been reported in every village of UP.”

(This article was originally published in The Federal Desh.)