Vibha Sharma
Tribune News Service
Gwalior, May 6
Adjoining Gwalior is Bhind-Datia, one of four constituencies in the Gwalior-Chambal region or ‘sambhag’, as it is called in these parts of the Hindi heartland, and from where the grand old party hopes to reap gains of the 2018 Assembly elections.
It is among the four BJP-dominated SC reserved constituencies in the state, the other three being Tikamgarh that polled today and Dewas and Ujjain that will vote in the Phase VII of the ongoing General Election. In the wake of the Dalit unrest last year, the Congress won 17 of the 32 Assembly seats in these four Lok Sabha constituencies, the BJP 13 and the Samajwadi Party and the BSP one each.
While caste has always been the determining factor in these parts of the country, after the violence last year the Dalit factor has further added to the play.
In the fray from Bhind is emerging Dalit face of the Congress, Devashish Jarariya, who switched over to the grand old party after being expelled from the BSP because supremo Mayawati “did not like his popularity”.
While young leaders like CPI’s Begusarai candidate Kanhaiya Kumar and BJP’s Tejaswi Surya from Bangalore South grabbed most of the headlines in these elections, Congress candidate in Bhind, Devashish Jarariya, has not gained as much attention.
Jarariya also claims to be the youngest candidate in these elections, younger even to Surya. “I am March 1991 born, Surya is November 1990 born,” says Jaraiya while dismissing allegations of having any hand or role in the violence that erupted around Bhind, Morena and Gwalior in the “Bharat bandh” called by Dalit outfits against the alleged dilution of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act in April, last year.
“I was not even here in the region,” says Jarariya to the allegations of him being a precipitator. “The BJP is trying to divide the people on the basis of caste. Whenever I have spoken, it is only for the rights of the community. I am not responsible for the divide,” he says.
“The BJP candidate (Sandhya Rai) is seeking votes on the name of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The basic needs of the people are not getting fulfilled so they are migrating to other places. Only those who have no resources are forced to stay back,” he says.
On why he was expelled from the BSP, he says it was because the non-official platform he created for the youth received support of seven lakh people from 22 states. “When my involvement became bigger, complains started coming and she (Mayawati) got angry and expelled me,” he says.
BJP leaders derisively dismiss his allegations of “lack of visible work or development in the region”. “One just has to visit around here to see the good work done by the BJP,” says party spokesperson Neeru Singh Gyani. “On the contrary, Dalits are feeling cheated by the Congress. The BJP has given them concrete houses, toilets, health facilities while the Congress government in the State has neither passed benefit of promised agriculture loan waiver nor the PM-Kisan scheme announced by the Narendra Modi government. There is complete disillusionment against the Kamal Nath-led government among the people,” she says.
Taking on BJP’s Sandhya Rai in saffron stronghold
- Jarariya is contesting against BJP’s Sandhya Rai, who has replaced sitting MP Bhagirath Prasad. In the 2014 elections, Prasad defeated Congress’ Imarti Devi with more than one and a half lakh votes
- The Bhind seat that has been with the saffron party for 30 years and is a stronghold of the BJP like other three SC seats in Madhya Pradesh - Tikamgarh, Dewas and Ujjain, where the Congress gained in last Assembly elections
from The Tribune http://bit.ly/3043ntQ
via Today’s News Headlines
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