Congress starts mission Dalit, targets 300 seats in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab & Uttarakhand

NEW DELHI: Congress has put its Mission Dalit in motion to target Scheduled Caste-dominated constituencies in the election-bound states of Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Uttarakhand. Congress has worked out specific promises, identified candidates and prepared campaign material to focus on 300-odd assembly segments across the three states.

As the electoral race is hotting up in the three states, Congress has prepared specific poll promises on shiksha (education), suraksha (security) and samman (respect). Even before the Congress unveils its manifesto in the states, its grassroot teams would take specific promises to Dalit homes.

These would include scholarships, jobs and strict mechanism to check atrocities. A beginning would be made with a training programme on November 11 in Lucknow where Congress workers would be provided election material on Ambedkar and Congress, Dalits and Congress, failure of successive governments in providing shisksha suraksha and samman to Dalits. Similar training programmes would be held in Punjab and Uttarakhand.

So far, the Congress had been concentrating on SC constituencies in the three states – 85 in UP, 13 in Uttarakhand and 33 in Punjab. However, now the party has decided to change its approach and rollout its Mission Dalit in other constituencies to increase its Dalit voteshare.

Congress’ SC cell incharge K Raju said, “We are now focusing on increasing Dalit voteshare. Our primary objective now is to reach out to Dalits in constituencies where performance of our candidates has been reasonable in 2012 elections.”

The strategy stems from the realisation that Mayawati has successfully weaned away the Dalits from Congress even in Punjab and Uttarakhand where it is a marginal player. Congress would focus on 120 such UP constituencies where Congress candidates polled over 30,000 votes. In Punjab, this outreach mission would spread across all 117 constituencies. In Uttarakhand, the party has identified 15 constituencies where BSP is a formidable player and a three-cornered contest would harm Congress.