Lucknow: BJP president Amit Shah, on Tuesday, had lunch with a Dalit family in Sewapuri block in Varanasi as a part of the BJP’s campaign to connect with the poor and downtrodden sections of society.
Accompanied by a group of senior and local party leaders, Mr Shah had lunch at the home of Girja Prasad Bind in Jogiyapur village. Jogiyapur is a Bind-dominated village in Varnasi which is Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Lok Sabha constituency.
Binds belong to the Most Backward Caste (MBC) groups and have been demanding an inclusion in the scheduled caste category. The village has over 100 Dalit families. The menu included ‘nenua’ ki sabzi (sponge guard cooked in a way that is peculiar to Varanasi), ‘parval’ ki sabzi, ‘dal’, rice and rotis. However, when it came to water, Mr Shah opted for bottled mineral water.
The food was served in steel plates and the BJP president and others were seated on the ground for the meal. Before the meal, Mr Shah was given a traditional welcome that included ‘aarti’ and showering of flower petals by the women. He was offered jaggery and water and then a round of pakoras.
Mr R.K. Patel, a local BJP leader who had coordinated the event, told this correspondent that only 17 people had joined Mr Shah for the lunch and the food was cooked by the women in the Bind family.
“We did not bear the expenses—it was the Bind family that had requested to host the lunch. We only provided some plastic disposable plates and ‘kulhads’ (earthen cups) for the event,” Mr Patel said.
After the meal, Mr Shah met the women of the house — Kiran Devi, Reeta Devi and Manorama — and thanked them for the food, adding that it was a delicious meal. Kiran, who led the cooking team, was delighted and said that this was the first time that she was meeting a big politician.
Girija Prasad Bind was equally thrilled when he said, “I am happy that the BJP president accepted my invitation and visited my house. This is the first time that a senior leader has come to the village”.
Mr Shah stayed for about an hour at Jogiyapur and then left for Allahabad.
Earlier he was given a rousing reception by the local leaders at the airport and along the way to the Jogiyapur village.
The Bahujan Samaj Party reacted sharply to the event. Ms Mayawati said that while the BJP had turned a blind eye to the desecration of a statue of late Kanshi Ram in Gurugram, the party president was doing ‘political dramebazi’ by having lunch at the house of a MBC family.
