Efforts to attract Dalits through religious conference, VHP’s initiative after BJP’s setback in Lok Sabha

New Delhi: In the recent Lok Sabha elections, the party suffered a lot as a part of the BJP’s Dalit supporters shifted to the opposition INDIA alliance. The BJP, which was moving ahead with a target of crossing 400, got reduced to just 240 seats and the NDA to 293 seats. After this, the Sangh Parivar is planning to hold a 15-day religious conference targeting Dalit settlements in villages and cities. Organized by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), this program includes eating food in Dalit homes and giving religious discourses in Dalit settlements.

Understand what is the complete program
Vishwa Hindu Parishad president Alok Kumar told The Indian Express that the programme will begin 15 days before Diwali, which is on November 1. We have requested religious leaders and saints to undertake padayatras to Dalit villages and settlements in cities and towns. During these, saints will eat with the community and also deliver religious discourses. This is being done to bring about religious awakening in the society. We keep doing this from time to time. Our idea is that instead of waiting for people to come to the satsang, the satsang should go to the people.So the reason is this
Before this, the organisation will also be busy celebrating its 60th anniversary on Krishna Janmashtami. Starting from August 24, the VHP will organise religious conferences in this regard in about 9000 blocks across the country. Alok Kumar said that these will see participation of different sections of the society, including women and Dalits. Though these programmes are in line with the Sangh Parivar’s long-term project of eradicating untouchability in society and uniting Hindus, they also have political significance in view of a large section of Dalits reportedly switching sides in the Lok Sabha elections.

The party suffered losses in the Lok Sabha elections
This time, apart from some Hindi heartland states, Maharashtra and Karnataka also witnessed a similar shift, which hurt the BJP’s electoral prospects. The party fell 32 seats short of a simple majority of 272 seats. The biggest setback for the BJP came in Uttar Pradesh, where despite inaugurating the Ram temple in Ayodhya in January, the party not only lost the Ayodhya (Faizabad) seat to the Samajwadi Party (SP) but also lost its tally in the state from 62 in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections to just 33 this time. The Dalit sentiment in the elections was influenced by the statements of some BJP candidates. Such leaders indicated in their election campaign that if the BJP-led NDA crossed 400 seats, the Constitution would be changed to facilitate the creation of a Hindu nation. The All India Alliance quickly took advantage of this and contested the elections on the issue of saving the Constitution drafted by Dalit icon B R Ambedkar.