Amit Shah's rally in Agra cancelled: BJP blames rain, others say party failed to get 40,000 Dalits

It seems recent incidents like the assault on Dalits in Gujarat’s Una or the remark against Mayawati by suspended BJP vice-president in UP Dayashankar Singh has affected the BJP’s plans in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh. [caption id=“attachment_2925830” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] BJP national president Amit Shah. Reuters[/caption] BJP president Amit Shah had to cancel a rally in Agra on Sunday after the UP BJP failed to gather a crowd of 40,000 Dalits, reported Deccan Chronicle. The report, however, also said that local BJP leaders claimed that the event had actually been cancelled due to “inclement weather”. But the report quoted sources in the BJP as saying that the rally was cancelled because of the dull response it got from the Dalit community and the possible threat of protests against the rally. Another report in The Times of India said that Amit Shah’s rally was supposed to coincide with the arrival of the Dhamma Chetna Yatra, led by the pro-BJP “Modi’s monks” in Agra. The report added that party insiders said that Shah’s rally had been cancelled because of protests in Aligarh and Mathura. BJP general secretary Arun Singh and UP BJP chief Keshav Prasad Maurya will address the rally now instead of Shah. The news reports about the cancellation of Amit Shah’s rally come on a day when thousands of Dalits in Ahmedabad took a pledge not to lift carcasses in protest against the attacks on Dalits by upper caste Hindu activists. The collective pledge was taken at a Dalit rally called by as many as 30 Dalit groups from across Gujarat and backed by the quasi religious body Jamiat-e-Ulema-Hind. This is the first time in Gujarat that as many as 30 Dalit groups from across the state have come together to raise a plethora of issues facing the community for decades. They have rallied under the banner of ‘Una Dalit Atyachar Ladat Samiti’ (Una Dalit Fight against Atrocities Committee), with Jignesh Mevani as their convenor. Mevani is a young low-profile lawyer who has been single-handedly fighting several court battles for the Dalits. (With inputs from PTI)