‘Want new blood’: BSP ‘absent’, SP ‘silent’, Dalits, Muslims look at Bhim Army’s Azad

Near the Ravidas Temple and statue of B R Ambedkar in Nezowadi Gaanwdi village in the Nagina Lok Sabha constituency on Saturday April 6, a small crowd is waiting for leaders of the Aazad Samaj Party (ASP-Kanshiram) to arrive for a small meeting in support of party chief and candidate Chandrashkhar Azad.

Most of the crowd, including children, belongs to the Jatav Dalit community. Diehard supporters of community leader and BSP president Mayawati, they are this time looking at Azad, who is also a Jatav.

One reason, they say, is to give a warning to Mayawati over her “silence” against the BJP and the “absence” of the BSP on the ground. “A few weeks back, when a Dalit youth was killed in police firing in Rampur, Chandrashekhar bhai met the family. But did Mayawati go? Or her nephew and successor Akash Anand? No. They have become VIP leaders,” says Kamaljeet Singh Ravi, the president of the Nagina ‘Ravidas Manav Seva Sangh’.

Ravi says not just Dalits but Muslims too will support Azad. Muslims form the largest group in the Nagina seat, which votes in the first phase on April 19, followed by Dalits. “Chandrashekhar is speaking for the youths, Dalits and Muslims. He is ready to hit the streets to protest… He is giving a tough fight. He may not win, but certainly he will teach a lesson to the BSP and Samajwadi Party. The winner will be either BJP or ASP,” Ravi says.

The Nezowadi Gaanwdi village is dominated by Dalits, numbering around 600, with the rest 300 being Sainis, an OBC group seen as supporters of BJP candidate Om Kumar. The SP candidate is a retired additional judge, Manoj Kumar, while the BSP’s is Surendra Pal Singh.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, when the SP and BSP had an alliance, BSP leader Girish Chandra had won the Nagina