UP BJP to invoke ‘guesthouse incident’ to woo Dalit voters

Lucknow: In the run-up to next year’s Lok Sabha elections, the ruling BJP in Uttar Pradesh is set to invoke the infamous “guesthouse incident” of 1995 to woo Dalits.

The UP BJP’s Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes Morcha will run a three-week statewide campaign starting on Ambedkar Jayanti (April 14) to remind the Dalit community how BJP members “rescued” Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati from workers of Samajwadi Party that day.

The incident led to years of bitterness between Mayawati and the SP, and the BSP supremo even mentioned the 1995 episode recently in response to overtures made by SP president Akhilesh Yadav to the Dalit community.

In 1995, SP workers reportedly laid siege to the state guesthouse in Lucknow, when Mayawati was holding a meeting with her party MLAs in a room after indications from her that the BSP was quitting the alliance with the SP. BJP leader Brahmadutt Dwivedi is believed to have protected Mayawati from SP workers who had reportedly gone on the rampage.

“We will start a campaign on the birth anniversary of Babasaheb Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar on April 14 and tell Dalits how BJP members rescued Mayawati from SP workers during the guesthouse incident. This campaign will continue till May 5,” UP BJP Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes Morcha chief Ram Chandra Kanojia said on Wednesday.

“During the incident in 1995, our leader Brahmadutt Dwivedi reached the spot and rescued Mayawati,” he told PTI.

The BJP’s move comes after an important meeting of BSP held in Lucknow on April 2-3 and SP chief Yadav unveiling the statue of BSP founder Kanshi Ram in Rae Bareli on Monday.

Opposition parties have said that instead of starting this campaign, the ruling party should work to stop the atrocities against Dalits in the state.

SP’s national general secretary Swami Prasad Maurya took a jibe at the BJP’s proposed campaign, saying, “In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, SP and BSP have forgotten all the previous things and entered into an alliance. Now, what does the BJP want to achieve by digging up dead bodies.”

He alleged, “No reservation is being given in recruitments. If the BJP is such a well-wisher of Dalits and OBCs then why it is playing with the reservation.”

Congress spokesperson Surendra Rajput said that instead of running such a campaign, the BJP should stop the atrocities on Dalits.

“A Dalit girl was raped in Hathras and after her death, her body was forcibly cremated by the administration,” he said, in a reference to allegations over an incident that took place in 2020.

“Apart from this, there have been many incidents of atrocities against Dalits in Lakhimpur Kheri, Gonda and Banda, but the BJP never talks about them,” Rajput alleged.