Till 1997, when the then chief minister Kalyan Singh installed her statue at a crossing in the state capital, Uda Devi and her contribution to the freedom movement was almost unknown.
As soon as the statue of Veerangana Uda Devi was installed, political analysts delved into history and discovered that she was one of the brave female fighters in the freedom struggle and that she belonged to the Pasi community — the latter obviously being more important than the former in a caste obsessed state like UP.
The ruling Bahujan Samaj Party is now keen to put Uda Devi on a pedestal and win over Pasi votes that constitute more than 25 per cent of the dalit vote bank.
The Mayawati government, late on Tuesday night, declared a restricted holiday on Wednesday to mark the martyrdom of Uda Devi and also organised a grand function in Lucknow on Wednesday to mark the occasion.
Former bureaucrat Ram Lakhan Pasi, who heads the Uda Devi Smarak Sansthan, organised the main function where BSP state president Swami Prasad Maurya was the chief guest. Mr Pasi had recently joined the BSP and has apparently been entrusted the task of bringing the Pasi community closer to the BSP.
The BSP is making a fresh start as far as the Pasi community is concerned. The Pasi voters have traditionally gone with the BJP, but now Ms Mayawati wants to bring all dalit castes and sub-castes under the BSP umbrella.
“Kalyan Singh paid lip service to the community by installing the statue of Uda Devi but did nothing for the community. Lok Jan Shakti party leader Ram Vilas Paswan comes here to garland the statue but does not bother about the welfare of the community. The BSP is genuinely concerned about Pasi welfare and we are even developing a package for the community,” disclosed a BSP functionary.
After dalits and brahmins, the Pasis are the third major vote bank that BSP hopes to consolidate in its favour before the Assembly polls. At present, there are 21 Pasi legislators in the UP Assembly, of which only five belong to the BSP. The Pasi population in UP is spread across 35 districts and 11 Assembly segments where Pasi votes play a decisive role.
Interestingly, the BJP’s traditional hold on Pasi votes is also weakening since nor has the party developed Pasi leadership in the state and neither has the BJP leadership bothered to address the issues confronting the community. Prominent Pasi politicians like R.K. Choudhury, Avadesh Prasad and Sushila Saroj remain at the periphery of power politics in the state.