Series of Dalit controversies blow up BJP on election time

TIL Desk/National/New Delhi-Dalits issue in Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled Gujarat and a massive rally to protest the demolition of Ambedkar Bhavan in Mumbai on Tuesday were not enough, the party on Wednesday had to remove a senior figure in its Uttar Pradesh leadership for making derogatory comments about Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati.

The series of controversies related to Dalit issues have come as the party has begun a big campaign to win the state in the polls slated for early 2017. Led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party head Amit Shah, it has been making a lot of effort to reach out to Dalit voters. On Wednesday, however, a video clip of comments by one of its UP vice-presidents, Dayashankar Singh, went viral on a social networking site.

The issue also rocked Rajya Sabha proceedings (Mayawati is a member of the House) in the afternoon, which had already been adjourned several times since morning, when members of the Congress, BSP and Trinamool Congress trooped into the well of the House, to protest the incidents in Gujarat.