For the BSP, it is all about caste identity in the South Delhi elections

Elections in Delhi are a complicated phenomenon. Even though the fight is between Congress and the BJP and Congress mostly will win six seats out of the seven, BSP and other fringe parties may just cut into the votes and secure vote banks that could help when the next Assembly elections come up or maybe even for the next general elections.
According to senior BSP leaders, the aim in Delhi is to damage both Congress and the BJP and expand the voter base. Traditionally, the BSP has been called a "Dalit party" where Mayawati exhorted the lower castes to associate with BSP to register their case and get their voice heard. Lately, the party has been making inroads into other castes as well, including Brahmins, the OBCs, and the Muslims.
In Delhi, pitching three Muslim candidates is a way to tell the minority that the party is removed from the biases and will share power with those that have been shunned by others.
Coming back to identity politics, in the South Delhi constituency, it is all about identity. For the Gurjjars, it is mostly about a candidate who is from their community, and it is a way of asserting their presence on the political canvas.
And it is also all about who pours in the most money. Tanwar, the BSP candidate, has been using his wealth wisely to win over the people by disbursing pensions to the widows and running mobile clinics in his constituency.
In fact, most the BSP candidates, besides representing caste and identity groups, also have a enormous wealth. It is said that the BSP supremo hands out tickets to those who can buy those. The ticket price could range in crores, sources say.
In these elections, in the Congress bastion, the BSP is counting on caste conflict, repressed identity and of course money.
South Delhi makes for an interesting constituency because of the its gradients. Known mostly for its elites and their sprawling farm houses, the area also has a large number of urban and rural villages where basics like water and sewer lines are an issue. Tanwar of course is using all of this to his advantage. Add to it his Gurjjar tag and you can predict he is going to give tough competition.
An edited version of the article appeared in the Indian Express on April 5, 2009.

Chinki Sinha
New Delhi, April 4, 2009


The women sat on the fringes of the Bhaichara Samiti meeting at Ghittorini village while men crowded around Bahujan Samaj Party’s South Delhi candidate Kanwar Singh Tanwar Saturday evening as he promised the moon to the villagers.

At least 400 members of several caste groups – Valmiki, Jatav, Gurjjar, Thakur, Muslims, Kumhar and Vaishya - brought together by the Samiti coordinators who have been active at the grassroots level for months now in preparation of the Lok Sabha elections, had gathered to listen to the candidate, a Gurjjar and also one of the richest candidates in the city to file nominations. Such meetings are held in different parts of the constituency everyday, party workers said.

On Saturday, it was Ghittorini’s turn.

Ghittorini, an urban village, on the Mehrauli-Gurgaon Road, has its own set of problems. With its population well over 10,000, it has no dispensaries, no colleges in the nearby area, and a pond that is full of garbage and has an overbearing stench, which the villagers say is a menace.

For the villagers, who are mostly Gurjjars, it is a choice between Ramesh Bidhuri, the BJP’s candidate who is also a Gurjjar and related to Tanwar, and the BSP’s candidate, whose personal wealth is pegged at more than Rs. 150 crores.

“Sajjan Kumar has never even come here in his five years,” Jagdish Pradhan, a party worker, who was previously with the Congress but switched loyalties after he felt no development came to his village. “We will definitely not vote for Congress.”

Even Tanwar in his address exhorted the villagers to either vote for Bidhuri or himself.

“Choose between me and him but don’t give vote to Congress,” he said.

The Rajasthan wounds are still fresh in the community and many of the youth are bitter. “No BJP for us after what they have done to our brothers and sisters,” one man said.

The BSP has stayed clear from making promises on reservation for Gurjjars here.

Pointing to a thick gold chain that hung loosely around a Gurjjar man’s neck, Tanwar joked that the community was doing well in Delhi and didn’t need reservations in jobs.

“Here it is about development, about sewer lines, getting rid of the Lal Dora that marks the boundary of a village, and basic needs,” Tanwar said, as he smoked a hookah with the village elders.

Mayawati has long been banking on her Bhaichara Samiti meetings to bring new vote banks over to her side. In Delhi, many such samitis that invariably have a Dalit general secretary, have been working overtime to make inroads into a city that hasn’t been the traditional turf for the party. In 1993, the party’s vote share was just one percent.

While a senior leader said that BSP’s role this time around is to damage the major players, South Delhi is one seat where party higher-ups are hopeful of a win after the Gurjjars, who number more than two lakhs in the constituency, threw their weight behind Tanwar at a Mahapanchayat last week.

In this village, it isn’t about the lotus or the elephant. It is more about an assertion of self. The BSP has played smart to pitch a Gurjjar candidate, also a millionaire, who has been distributing pensions to widows and running mobile dispensaries. Having one of their own community get the seat is matter of pride.

Shyamawati doesn’t care who ultimately wins but it has to be either of the Gurjjar relatives.

“The vote will go to one of them,” she said. “But we like Tanwar. He is a good man.”

But with all this talk of the slow march of the elephant and down with Sajjan Kumar, the colorful Congress flag flew on top of a building. The elephant was nowhere in sight.

“Oh, it is the election commission’s rule. We are not breaking any laws. This one was put up by a child,” a party worker said. “We will get it down.”