Dr Ambedkar Nagar — formerly and more commonly known as Mhow — was once a quiet cantonment town in Indore district. But in recent times, it has become an ostentatious platform for Dalit politics, and the centre of Dalit political symbolism.
Top politicians — from Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, former Uttar Pradesh CM Mayawati to Congress president Rahul Gandhi — flock here to espouse the Dalit cause. And why? Because India’s foremost Dalit icon, Dr B.R. Ambedkar, was born here in 1891.
Yet, the plight of the Dalit voters of Mhow reveals that all these political visits are just symbolism, nothing else. Voters are in a dilemma on whether to back the BJP, which they say has done nothing for them in the last 15 years, or the Congress, which they claim did nothing before that.
As per the 2011 census, Dalits constitute around 15.2 per cent of Madhya Pradesh’s population. And with BJP trying to win a fourth term, the Congress trying to dislodge it, and Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party hoping to make a mark, the Dalit vote is crucial to all.
ThePrint's Ruhi Tewari goes on ground to uncover the situation in Mhow before the elections in Madhya Pradesh commence.
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