The Congress party has decided to play caste politics again in Uttar Pradesh to revive its tumbling political fortunes. Former Union Minister and senior Congress leader in the state Jitin Prasada has claimed that atrocities on the Brahmin community have increased under the Yogi Adityanath government and will use the ‘Brahmin Chetna Samvad’ to connect with the Brahmin community.
“There has been an attempt to sideline the community, and make it feel humiliated and insecure. The community is being made to struggle for justice and is facing step-motherly treatment. It”s being deprived of its rights and the need of the hour is to unite and fight for its identity,” Jitin Prasada claimed.
The senior Congress leader claimed that it is time for the Brahmin community to forego their differences and unite to regain their ‘lost glory’. The ‘brahmin Chetna Samvad’ will be used to discuss various issues pertaining to the community and find acceptable solutions to their problems. The Samvad will be conducted through social media in every district.
It is pertinent to note here that users on social media have said that the Congress party is using WhatsApp groups to paint the Yogi Government as ‘anti-brahmin’. In current circumstances, it is planning to use the case of Vikas Dubey, whose men had recently killed 8 men of the UP Police, to target the Yogi government.
Just received this message from my relative. Don't fall for it. Vikas Dubey is a hardened criminal. He had murdered another Brahmin BJP leader 'Santosh Shukla'. Don't let the dirty game of Congress succeed. Lets hope he is brought to justice. pic.twitter.com/Iza5MNxOY4
— Vikas Sankrityayan (@MODIfiedVikas) July 3, 2020
Reportedly, the Congress party is planning to use any punishment meted out to Vikas Dubey for his crimes and portray it as punishment handed out to ‘Brahmin Vikas Dubey’. It is, of course, known widely that Vikas Dubey is a criminal of the highest order and murdered BJP leader Santosh Shukla as well, who happened to be a Brahmin too.
However, there does not appear to be any depths to which the Congress party will not sink to. Such tactics have been used by the Congress government in the past. one of the most prominent examples of it is during Assembly Elections in Rajasthan.
In Rajasthan, the Congress party used the death of Anandpal Singh in an encounter to woo the Rajput community. The slain gangster’s daughter, Yogita Singh, was deployed by the Congress party to play the sympathy card in its bid to secure the votes of the Rajput community. Yogita Singh, while addressing a program under the chairmanship of District President Keshar Singh, Ravana Rajput, in Sujangarh Ravana Rajput Sabha building on Sunday, blamed the BJP government for the death of her father.
The said program was attended by various Congress leaders, including Congress nominee Bhawarlal Meghwal. In Uttar Pradesh, ahead of the Lok Sabha Elections, it was widely speculated that the Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party had not formed an alliance with the Congress party in order to split the Upper Caste vote in the state. However, that did not work as the BJP managed to secure over 60 out of the 80 seats in the state.
It is also to be remembered that poll strategist Prashant Kishore had advised the Congress party to project either Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi or a Brahmin as the Chief Ministerial candidate in Assembly Elections in Uttar Pradesh in 2017. Consequently, senior leader Sheila Dixit had been declared the party’s Chief Ministerial candidate. That was before the Congress party decided to dump the strategy and went ahead with an alliance with the Samajwadi Party.
The Congress party had also toyed with the prospect of wooing the Dalit votebank in the state. In this regard, they had made overtures to the Bhim Army in order to strengthen their position in the state. however, considering that the tactic did not work, it appears that they have reverted to making efforts to woo the Brahmin community in Uttar Pradesh.
