At Bheem Army’s ‘Bahujan Banao Rally’ in Bijnor on Monday, the tone of its chief, Chandrashekhar, was completely political. He made it quite clear though his organisation was a social one, he would prefer to play a kingmaker in the next Lok Sabha elections.
Through this Bahujan Banao Rally, Chandrashekhar passed strong signals in the political circles that he was all set to influence the political equations in the region, especially against the BJP. He stressed on the need for the Dalits and Muslims to unite against the BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
Addressing the rally in Bijnor, Chandrashekhar targetted the BJP calling it a “party of liars” and announced that Army leaders and workers would take out a ‘padyatra’ to expose the saffron party.
A huge crowd, prominently of the youth, had turned out to listen to the young Dalit leader who was released from Saharanpur jail a few weeks ago after almost a year. He was arrested in connection with the Saharanpur riots last year that was followed by a clash between Dalit and Rajputs. Chandrashekhar was later booked under the National Security Act.
In his address on Monday, Chandrashekhar demanded reservation in judiciary and said top institutions like CBI, ED and IB should not be in control of the government. He also targetted the state government on “poor health services” and spending crores of rupees in “unnecessarily changing names of cities” instead of improving the condition of health and education scenarios in the state.
Also echoing leaders of some other political parties on the issue Electronic Voting Machines, the Bheem Army chief said voting through EVMs should be boycotted.
Giving a clear-cut indication that he was now ready to take on the ruling party with full strength, he said the BJP governments at the Centre and in the state had done nothing for the welfare of Dalits, Muslims and other deprived sections of the society.
Calling upon the need for unity of Dalits and Muslims, he said the BJP was afraid of this alliance. A good percentage of Muslims were present at the rally.
It is believed that shortly after being released from jail, Chandrashekhar started working on the social engineering formula of BSP chief Mayawati of uniting Dalits and Muslims.
Organising a rally in Bijnor is also said to be a well-calculated move of the Bheem Army as the area is dominated by Dalits and has a sizeable percentage of Muslims. Mayawati has in 1989 won the Lok Sabha seat from here.
Congress leader Meera Kumar has won a Lok Sabha byelection here.
Chandrasekhar too wants to extend his base in the region and hence came out of Saharanpur where he now has a strong base by organising this rally in nearby Bijnor.
Muslim leaders including former MLAs Gauhar Khan and Mohammad Ghazi worked hard for success of the rally, and Muslim leaders tied blue turban to Chandrashekher in their presence.
This rally and the new focus of the Bheem Army on the Muslims may surely have alarmed the political parties here. Also, to develop a personal bond with people, Chandrashekher met families of those killed in violence on April 2 Bharat Bandh in Meerut and Muzaffarnagar. He assured tull support to these victim’s families.