RPI (Athawale) chief and Union Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Ramdas Athawale addressing a press conference. File
| Photo Credit: Ranjeet Kumar
With an eye on Scheduled Caste (SC) votes, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) will hold a Jan Adhikar rally under the banner of Dalit-centric Republican Party of India (Athawale), a partner of the ruling BJP, on October 1 in Uttar Pradesh’s Meerut.
The public meeting is expected to be attended by top BJP leaders from Uttar Pradesh unit of BJP, including Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya and local MP Rajendra Agrawal.
RPI (Athawale) is led by Union Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Ramdas Athawale, who is considered a Dalit face of the ruling dispensation. The choice of Meerut holds significance as the region in and around the district has a large Scheduled Caste (SC) electorate including Bijnor and Nagina.
“It is a Jan Adhikar rally. A large section of Dalits and Backward Classes are fully disillusioned by the Bahujan Samaj Party [BSP] and the Samajwadi Party [SP], and are supporting the NDA and RPI. Our rally will strengthen the RPI support base and alliance in the State,” said Pawan Gupta, a leader of RPI(A).
The BSP led by former U.P. CM Mayawati is a party that is focused on Dalit politics and garnered good support in the region during its rising years in the State politics in 2000s. It still enjoys support among a large section of the Dalit community in the region. The SP is the principal Opposition party in U.P.
RPI(A) commands some support among the Scheduled Caste (SC) community in Maharashtra.