Dalit card fails to rake in votes for BJP in Doaba

Rachna Khaira

Tribune news Service

Jalandhar, March 11

Even though the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has managed to record a great victory in Uttar Pradesh riding high on the support of the Dalit vote bank, Dalit voters refused to show up for the saffron party in Punjab. The party could only get one seat in Doaba. Out of the five seats that the BJP won in the last Assembly elections in 2012, only Som Prakash has managed to retain his seat from Phagwara this time.

Among the BJP leaders, former Cabinet Minister Manoranjan Kalia from Jalandhar (Central) constituency was defeated by Congress candidate Rajinder Beri by 7,723 votes. While Kalia could only claim 6,816 votes, Beri got 14,539 votes. Even though Kalia is known for his fiery speeches and throwing salvos at his opponents on social media, a broad day light-murder of a Khalsa college student in his constituency had hampered his win this time.

Even other stalwarts, including former cabinet minister Bhagat Chunni Lal could not secure win for his son Mohinder Bhagat who lost seat to Congress candidate Sushil Rinku by a huge margin of 17,334 votes in the Jalandhar (West) constituency. Also, another prominent candidate KD Bhandari too lost to first-time contestant Bawa Henry of Congress by a margin of 32,291 votes. Both the candidates were known to share a no-love-lost relationship with state BJP Chief Vijay Sampla and could not enjoy cadre support.

While the saffron party won seven seats in 2007 in the Doaba region, including four in Jalandhar (Urban), Phagwara, Hoshiarpur and Mukerian, the number reduced to a mere five in 2012 Assembly elections when two of its candidates, including Tikshan Sud and Arunesh Kumar lost Hoshiarpur and Mukerian seats, respectively.

However, the intense factionalism reported in the Dalit community after Vijay Sampla took over the reins as state party chief seemed to have played spoilsport and hampered the party’s performance in the region.

Although Sampla was known to be close to Kalia, his fight with Som Prakash and Bhagat Chunni Lal came to fore on many occasions like the Vijay Sankalp Yatra held in January this year where supporters of both the leaders clashed openly. Also, despite the call given by BJP Union Minister of State Arjun Ram Meghwal, BJP SC Morcha national convener and MP Vinod Sonkar, former national convener Dushayant Gautam to attend the SC Morcha rally at Jalandhar in December last year, it failed to pull Dalit voters out from their homes.

Sampla refused to comment over his party’s appalling performance in Punjab unlike its counterparts in UP and said the party would soon assess the cause of its “thwarting” performance in the elections.

Only one seat in Doaba

• The party could get only one seat in Doaba. Out of the five seats that the BJP won in the last Assembly elections in 2012, only Som Prakash has managed to retain his seat from Phagwara this time. 
• An intense factionalism reported in the Dalit community after Vijay Sampla took over the reins as state party chief seemed to have played spoilsport and hampered with the party’s performance in the region.