Eyeing MP's 16% SC vote, BJP launches fund for Sant Ravidas temple

Bhopal, July 2 In a bid to garner the 16 per cent Dalit vote in the run up to the assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will kick-off it's state-wide campaign with a theme of "social harmony". 

During 15-day long campaign from August 15 - August 30, the BJP workers will visit each assembly constituency to collect donations for building a huge temple to 15th century mystic poet-saint Ravidas in Sagar district.

Though, the announcement regarding the building of the temple was made by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan earlier in February this year, the proposal for launching a state-wide campaign was finalised at a meeting held in Gwalior on June 29, which was also attended by Union Ministers Jyotiraditya Scindia and Narendra Singh Tomar.

In the meeting, Chouhan listed the initiatives taken by his government for the uplift of the backward and downtrodden sections on five counts - Panch Krantis (five revolutions) - including education, employment, land for living, women empowerment and respect for all.

It will be the first temple of Sant Ravidas in Madhya Pradesh, being built at a cost of Rs. 100 crore. The couplets and teachings of Sant Ravidas will be inscribed on the walls of the temple. His personality and work will also be showcased. BJP workers during the campaign will highlight these intiatives before Dalit families.

The scheduled caste category has many sub castes, including Jatav, Khatik, Valmiki, Chowdhary, Balayi and Saket. "We will constitute a welfare board for each sub caste of the scheduled caste category," Chouhan announced.

Importantly, the SC category voters constitute around 16% votes in MP and 35 out of the 230 assembly seats are reserved for the SC category. In the 2013 elections, when the BJP had won a total of 165 seats, it had emerged victorious on 80% of these 35 SC reserved seats.

Lal Singh Arya, national head of the BJP's SC cell, talking to IANS said, "A state-wide yatra will be taken out in a bid to seek the contribution of people from across the sections, because Sant Ravidas is not limited to any particular caste or community, his entire life was spent serving the poor."