BJP Announces Seven-Month Sant Ravidas Outreach Ahead of 2027
The seven-month campaign marks the 650th birth anniversary of the 15th-century saint-poet and targets the Dalit community.
The BJP is launching a seven-month outreach campaign focused on Sant Ravidas ahead of the 2027 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections. The initiative aims to consolidate support among the Ravidasia community, a significant Dalit sub-group in the state. Party strategists view the extended timeline as necessary to deepen engagement with voters who have historically aligned with rival parties. The campaign reflects the BJP's broader strategy to expand its social coalition before the next electoral cycle.
The Bharatiya Janata Party will launch a seven-month outreach programme centred on the 15th-century saint-poet Sant Ravidas on July 29, 2026, carrying soil from his birthplace in Varanasi across the country in 131 urns. The campaign, titled the Shri Guru Ravidas Maharaj Samrasta Sankalp Abhiyan, is scheduled to conclude on February 20, 2027, coinciding with the 650th birth anniversary of the saint (Indian Express).
Party president Nitin Nabin and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath are slated to inaugurate the exercise at Seer Govardhanpur, the saint’s birthplace, addressing a Samrasta Sankalp Sabha for which the organisation has been directed to mobilise a gathering of 25,000 people. A "maati pujan" (worship of soil) will precede the launch on July 27, after which BJP leaders from 131 groups nationwide will fill the urns on July 28. From July 30 to September 10, delegates from 98 organisational districts and six regional units in Uttar Pradesh, along with representatives from 27 other states, will carry the urns to villages, temples, and saint congregations for a Kalash Vandan programme. Simultaneously, a Samrasta Yatra will run from Jalandhar in Punjab to Varanasi (Indian Express).
While party leaders formally deny any linkage between the yatra and the five state assembly polls due in early 2027 — noting that the BJP has celebrated Guru Ravidas Jayanti in previous years — sources describe this as the first time a seven-month campaign has been specifically designed to reach the Sant Ravidas-following Dalit community (Indian Express). The Ravidassias, a Dalit sub-group, number more than 12 lakh in Punjab’s Doaba region, spanning Kapurthala, Hoshiarpur, Nawanshahr, and Jalandhar districts. Their pilgrimage to Varanasi for the Jayanti is significant enough that the 2022 Punjab assembly elections were postponed from February 14 to February 20 to avoid a clash (Indian Express).
In Uttar Pradesh, Dalits constitute 21 per cent of the population and hold 84 of the 403 assembly seats reserved for Scheduled Castes. The BJP’s plan allocates 104 urns for distribution to every village in the state, with the remaining 27 sent elsewhere. In the 2022 assembly elections, the BJP and its ally Apna Dal (Soneylal) together won 63 of the 84 reserved seats, while the Samajwadi Party-led opposition alliance secured 20. In Punjab, where Dalits make up 32 per cent of the population and 34 of 117 seats are reserved, the BJP failed to win any reserved seat in 2022 (Indian Express).
The extended timeline and the logistical scale of moving sacred soil through 131 routes suggest an organisational investment that goes beyond ritual observance. The party’s directive to ensure a 25,000-strong gathering at the launch, coupled with a calendar of deepotsav, Guruvani recitations, bhajan sandhyas, and outreach to saints and mahatmas, indicates a sustained mobilisation effort. Whether the campaign alters voting patterns in the reserved constituencies of Uttar Pradesh and Punjab remains to be seen when the electorate goes to the polls in early 2027.
Indian Express