Competition on to appropriate his legacy; events planned throughout the year.

Dr. B.R. Ambedkar’s 124th birth anniversary on Tuesday became an occasion for political parties of all hues to lay claim to his legacy and, in effect, reach out to Dalit voters. The enthusiasm of the parties to launch year-long celebrations seemed to have been spurred by the fact that Dalits had not voted only along caste lines in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

The BJP used the day to soft-launch its campaign for the Bihar Assembly polls scheduled later this year, with a ‘Viraat Karyakarta Samagam’ in Patna, addressed by party president Amit Shah and Home Minister Rajnath Singh.

The Congress launched the year-long celebration of Dr. Ambedkar’s 125th birth year from Mhow, his birthplace in Madhya Pradesh, with the former Home Minister and Dalit leader, Sushil Kumar Shinde, presiding over the event. The party plans a bigger event once vice-president Rahul Gandhi is back from his leave of absence. The year-long commemoration will end in Nagpur, where Dr. Ambedkar converted to Buddhism with his followers in 1956.

A number of programmes were held all over the country to mark the occasion, including in Parliament. It was attended by Congress president Sonia Gandhi and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Ms. Gandhi later issued a written statement saying, “His faith in democracy, which he shared with Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Patel and all the stalwarts of the freedom movement, is also one of his proud legacies to our country.”