Local polls: After Sonia, Sena's turn to woo dalits

After Congress President Sonia Gandhi, it is Shiv Sena's turn to woo dalits for the forthcoming elections to 10 municipal corporations, including the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).

"Dalits have had enough experience of Congress' politics of betrayal. Now they should remove all misconceptions about us and give us one chance," Sena working president Uddhav Thackeray said today.

He was speaking to reporters after Sena chief Bal Thackeray inaugurated the party's central control room to monitor campaigning for the civic elections.

"The way the Democratic Front government handled Khairlangi killings and its aftermath exposes double talk of the Congress on dalit issues. It treats dalits as a votebank and leaves them to their fate once elections are over," he said.

At a rally on Saturday, Congress President Sonia Gandhi too had tried to woo dalits, who are agitated over the state government's inept handling of Khairlangi killings and its fallout. Gandhi condemned the Khairlangi killings by saying, "All of us hang our heads in shame over such a barbaric incident and our government will ensure speedy justice is delivered to the victims."

Dalits constitute nearly 10 per cent of city's 81 lakh voters and can swing fortunes in 35 to 45 wards out of 227.

Thackeray had, in the 2004 Assembly elections, tried to forge an alliance between Sena's traditional Marathi votebank and dalits, by giving the slogan, Shiv Shakti-Bhim Shakti. However, this didn't work.

Traditionally, dalits, especially the neo-Buddhists, see Sena and other Hindutva forces as their enemy no 1. But this time, the Sena seems to be confident of wooing a section of the dalits which is not happy with the state government over the Khairlangi killings.

The Sena leadership also feels that Republican Party of India (RPI) leader Ramdas Athavle, who has decided to contest alone, will divide Congress and NCP votes and benefit the Sena.