With OBC Kushwaha votes on thoughts, the Bihar BJP is all set to have fun 2327th delivery anniversary of emperor Ashoka, who is alleged to have dominated most a part of the Indian subcontinent between 268 BCE and 232 BCE. It is the BJP that first began organizing delivery anniversary of the Mauryan king in 2015.
This 12 months, the occasion will mark his anniversary on April 8 — the eighth day of Hindi month of Chaitra. It is organized as per Hindi calendar. UP Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya and Union Minister Bhupendra Yadav will attend the perform. Though historians differ on the precise date or 12 months of Ashoka’s delivery, BJP claims it’s going to be the Mauryan king’s 2327th delivery anniversary.
️ Subscribe Now: Get Express Premium to entry one of the best Election reporting and evaluation ️
Ratnesh Kushwaha, BJP state working committee member and coordinator of the perform, informed The Indian Express that Bihar Panchayati Raj Minister Samrat Choudhary (a Kushwaha) flagged off chariots to 10 districts to create consciousness on significance of emperor Ashoka, who first gave the idea of Akhand Bharat. The districts the place the BJP chariots would transfer throughout embody Nalanda, Vaishali, Samastipur, Gaya, Aurangabad, Nawada, East Champaran and West Champaran, having sizeable inhabitants of OBC Kushwaha inhabitants.
Ratnesh Kushwaha stated whereas pre-recorded message on the significance of Ashoka could be performed by these chariots, handbills would even be distributed amongst individuals to unfold consciousness about Ashoka because the “national hero” of historic India. BJP has a sizeable variety of Kushwaha leaders and has lengthy been attempting to domesticate this constituency.
Koeri and Kushwaha, usually known as Luv-Kush in political lexicon, are about 9 per cent (three per cent Kurmis and 6 per cent Koeris or Kushwaha) and dubbed core constituency of Bihar CM Nitish Kumar. With former MP Upendra Kushwaha merging his Rashtriya Lok Samata Party with JD(U) in March 2021, JD(U), and in flip NDA, appears to be like for Luv-Kush votes consolidation. JD(U) would have fun Ashoka’s anniversary on April 9.
For the previous couple of years, Ashoka is getting used as political mascot in Bihar politics and brought as “symbol of OBC assertion and national icon” from amongst non-upper castes.
,
With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS
