Eyeing 51% vote share in MP assembly polls, BJP working overtime to woo SCs and STs

New Delhi, May 2 (PTI) With the aim to raise its vote share in Madhya Pradesh assembly polls to at least 51 per cent, the BJP has prepared a blueprint with a focus on deepening its penetration among Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) communities and addressing their issues, party leaders said.

In the run-up to the assembly elections in the state next year, the BJP's state unit has been holding several functions in memory of tribal leaders and freedom fighters.

In September last year, senior BJP leader Amit Shah had launched 'Janajatiya Abhiyan' (tribal campaign) to mark the martyrdom of tribal king Shankar Shah and his son Raghunath Shah.

The BJP-led state government last year had celebrated the first Tribal Pride Day (Janjatiya Gourav Diwas) to honour and commemorate Chota Nagpur tribal leader Birsa Munda, who in the late 19th century fought the British, and contractors and landlords who he thought were exploitative.

The underlying idea behind all these events was to reach out to Madhya Pradesh's 15 million tribal population. STs constitute 17 per cent of the state's population and SCs 21 per cent. There are 47 tribal seats and 35 reserved seats, which combined together is more than one-third of the total 230 seats of the state assembly.

Sharing the details of the party's organisational activities, BJP's Madhya Pradesh incharge Muralidhar Rao said the party used an app to update its organisational details and beef up its structure.

Rao said the BJP has been working to increase involvement of SCs and STs in the party and giving them respectable positions. The party is also addressing their emotional issues by highlighting the contributions of their leaders and personalities who have long been neglected.

"When you have emerged as the central force in the Indian politics, then you have to carry the society and its representative character must be reflected in the party," Rao said while talking about the party's reach-out activities to STs and SCs.

In the 2013 assembly polls, the BJP had won 37 of these 47 tribal seats to retain power for a third consecutive time. However,in 2018, the Congress won 31 seats, reducing the BJP to just 16.

The party got 41.02 per cent votes in the last assembly elections, while the Congress got 40.89 per cent. But in terms of seats, the BJP won 109 and the Congress 114.

Despite narrowly losing the elections to the Congress in the 2018 polls, the party returned to power in 2020 after winning over a chunk of its MLAs, who owed allegiance to Jyotiraditya Scindia, now a Union minister.

The party has been working overtime to recover its lost ground and strengthen its base.