Rahul Gandhi To Attend BSP Founder's Birth Anniversary Event In Uttar Pradesh To Woo Dalits Ahead Of Polls

New Delhi: Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, is continuing with his focus on Uttar Pradesh, where the former Congress chief has been trying to woo the party’s traditional Dalit support base ahead of the 2027 assembly polls.

Rahul will attend an event to honour Dalit icon Kanshi Ram, founder of BSP, in Lucknow on March 13 in an attempt to regain Dalit voters, who shifted away from Congress over the past 30 years. This shift significantly weakened the party, reducing its presence to just 2 out of 403 seats in the 2022 assembly polls and securing only one MP in 2019.

Keeping in mind that Kanshi Ram’s birth anniversary falls on March 15, when the BSP led by former four-term Chief Minister Mayawati will hold a show of strength across the state, the Congress managers decided to hold the party event on March 13 and have dubbed it the “social transformation day".

Sources said Rahul is likely to attend the March 13 event to convey his seriousness, as Uttar Pradesh is the home state of the Nehru-Gandhi family. It also sends the largest number of 80 MPs to the 543-member Lok Sabha and has been ruled by the BJP since 2017.

'We are going to organise a "social transformation conference" to observe the birth anniversary week of respected Kanshi Ramji in Lucknow on March 13. A day before, on March 12, I will attend a ‘Save Constitution’ event in Lakhimpur Kheri. The Congress has been presenting itself as an agent of social change over the past year, during which it has revamped party organisation down to the bloc level. It would be good if the BSP joins the INDIA bloc to fight against the BJP,” AICC in charge of Uttar Pradesh Avinash Pande told ETV Bharat.

Pande had been dropping hints for the BSP to join hands with the Congress to counter the BJP over the past few months as he got busy conducting the ‘save constitution’ and community-based events across the state.

“It is natural that social programmes are organised to give society a new direction and constructive thought. They aim to strengthen society and promote brotherhood. On such platforms, people from different political ideologies come together to speak in the interest of society,” said Pande.

In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the Congress and the Samajwadi Party (SP) alliance had dented the BJP by winning 43 of 80 seats. The SP won 37 seats while the Congress got 6, limiting the BJP to 33 seats, down from the 62 seats it had won in 2019.

The Congress and SP are therefore keen to repeat their 2024 Lok Sabha performance in the 2027 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, which would be a challenge for the BJP as well.

For that reason, Rahul had decided to represent Uttar Pradesh's Rae Bareli seat in the Lok Sabha and dropped Wayanad in Kerala, which also had given him a massive win in 2024.

“Kanshi Ram is a national icon, and it is our duty to honour such leaders. The Congress fights the BJP directly across the country and also in Uttar Pradesh. The Dalit groups had voted for the Congress in the 2024 national elections. They are now looking up to Congress ahead of the 2027 assembly elections, as we take along all the social groups to change society. The party is organising a big event in memory of Kanshi Ram in Lucknow on March 13. This will be the start of social change our leader, Rahul Gandhi, has been talking about,” AICC secretary in charge of Uttar Pradesh, Pradeep Narwal, told ETV Bharat.

Over the past years, Rahul sensed that a weakening BSP could offer a chance to the Congress to regain its traditional Dalit support base and directed the party leaders to work accordingly.

During the same time, Rahul also started focusing on wooing the other backward classes, which formed the bulk of the population across the country, to revive the Congress, particularly in Uttar Pradesh.

To take his politics forward, Rahul decided to recast the SC/ST and OBC departments of the AICC and brought in ex-AAP Rajendra Pal Gautam to head the SC department. He also set up advisory panels of senior leaders from across the country to push the two departments, which are now rallying forces for the March 13 event in Lucknow.

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