BJP Claims that it Helped Ambedkar Win Elections in Post-Independent India. But Is it true?

Since their disappointing performance in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections due to their hyperbolic and over-confident campaign about “changing the constitution”, the Sangh Parivar has not lost a moment to claim the legacy of Dr B.R. Ambedkar and the constitution to win back those from the Dalit and most backward class communities, who consider Ambedkar and the constitution as their saviour. 

A number of misinformation campaigns have started across India to reverse the perception that the Sangh Parivar was anti-constitution. Most recently, it has claimed that the Bharatiya Jana Sangh (the previous avatar of the Bharatiya Janata Party), not the Congress, helped Ambedkar when he contested the first Lok Sabha election in 1952 from North Mumbai (reserved) constituency, and later in the Bhandara Lok Sabha by-election. 

Many BJP leaders, like its 2024 Lok Sabha election candidate in Tamil Nadu, Ashvathaman Allimuthu, and senior party leaders in Karnataka and other states, are claiming that the Jana Sangh not only supported Ambedkar’s candidacy for Rajya Sabha from Mumbai state, but its support was crucial in securing his win in the Upper House.  

Know the real history!

In the 1952 general election, Dr Ambedkar contested as an independent candidate from Bombay (North Central), but the Indian National Congress did not support him and instead fielded their candidate opposite to him, Which ended in his defeat.

Similarly,…

— Ashvathaman Allimuthu (@asuvathaman) December 18, 2024

As a counter, the Congress leaders are citing a letter written by Ambedkar to his friend, in which he suspects the hand of Savarkar and communist leader Shripad Amrit Dange behind his defeat, as a testimony of their innocence. While the BJP leaders have challenged the veracity of the letter they are not confident in alleging that it is concocted. Mallikarjun Kharge, the Congress president also quoted the same letter as historical evidence to prove the Sangh conspiracy to defeat Ambedkar. 

Many facts are produced and reproduced to tailor to contemporary political needs but unless these are contextualised and we consider Ambedkar’s own political strategies, no sense can be drawn from repeating history .

Ambedkar and Rajya Sabha: What role did the Jana Sangh have?

If we take a cursory look at the historical records of Ambedkar’s election to the Rajya Sabha, we will know that it happened because of the Congress, not the Jana Sangh, which was nowhere in the scene. 

This is because Rajya Sabha members were elected indirectly by the legislators of the respective state assemblies.

The first Rajya Sabha in 1952 had 217 members, of whom 12 were nominated. As many as 295 members were elected by various state assemblies. In 1952, the Bombay legislative assembly was allotted 17 seats for election to the Rajya Sabha. Then, the strength of Mumbai legislative assembly was 281.

Thus, each Rajya Sabha member needed the endorsement of 16 MLAs of the Mumbai legislature.

In the 1951-1952 Bombay legislative assembly elections, out of 281 seats, the Congress won 269. Ambedkar’s Scheduled Castes Federation (SCF) won just one seat, the Socialist Party won nine, and the CPI, one.

The Bharatiya Jan Sangh (BJS) contested only two seats in Bombay and secured just 4,876 votes in total — losing both deposits and the seat.

So, how could a party without a single MLA have possibly helped Ambedkar get elected? Or claim that their support was “crucial” in securing the Rajya Sabha seat for Ambedkar?

Even if Ambedkar was nominated, it must have been through the then Congress-led Union government. Or, if he was elected from Bombay, it must have been with Congress support. Evidently, the Jan Sangh had little to no role in Ambedkar’s Rajya Sabha election. BJP’s claims are pure fabrications.

The 1952 and 54 Lok Sabha elections and the Hindutva brigade

Just before the 1952 general elections, Ambedkar resigned from Jawaharlal Nehru’s cabinet. Ambedkar’s SCF decided not to ally with the Congress and contest elections against it on political and ideological reasons. The election manifesto of the SCF stated clear opposition not only to Congress, but also declared its no-alliance policy with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, Hindu Mahasabha, or communists. SCF declared a political and electoral alliance only with the Socialist Party.

Therefore, there was no question of the Hindu Mahasabha or Jan Sangh supporting Ambedkar. On the contrary, they were hostile to his candidacy.

By 1954, Ambedkar was preparing to convert to Buddhism. Leaders like V.D. Savarkar of the Hindu Mahasabha and M.S. Golwalkar of the RSS routinely derided Ambedkar as a dharmadrohi or religious traitor. They mocked his decision to embrace Buddhism, claiming it lacked Kshatriya valour.

Ambedkar, in return, made sarcastic comments on Savarkar’s title of “Veer” in his Prabuddha Bharat writings.

Also read: RSS and Ambedkar: A Camaraderie That Never Existed

By the time of the 1954 by-elections, the RSS, Hindu Mahasabha, and Jan Sangh hated Ambedkar just as much as Congress did. Hence, the idea that Jana Sangh supported Ambedkar in the 1954 elections is also a lie. 

The other claim – that Dattopant Tengadi of the RSS was made the secretary of the SCF and the Jana Sangh acted as Ambedkar’s election agent – has also been proven false by Hari Narke, who edited volumes 17 to 22 of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar: Writings and Speeches published by the Maharashtra government. 

Such claims exist only in today’s BJP-RSS WhatsApp forwards — not in any speeches, writings, or official records of the Hindutva leaders of that era.

In fact, Hindu Mahasabha senior leader and RSS co-founder B.S. Moonje had clearly stated that helping Ambedkar was like offering milk to a snake – a comment that reflected their official stance in both the 1952 and 1954 elections.

What about Congress and communists?

This does not mean that the Congress was sympathetic to Ambedkar’s politics either. His vision of an autonomous Dalit politics rooted in dignity, self-respect, and social-economic democracy was never palatable to Congress.

Sardar Patel had famously said they would not even open a window, leave alone the door, for Ambedkar to enter the Constituent Assembly – and Congress actively tried to ensure his defeat in the assembly elections.

Still, immediately after Independence, the political expediency of forging national unity in the context of Partition, the Congress leadership took a strategic decision to bring in Ambedkar to the Constituent Assembly and also support his Rajya Sabha nomination later in 1952.

Ambedkar, in turn, accepted this cooperation in the changed and hostile circumstances to help shape the future of India for the marginalised within available limits, and went on to chair the Drafting Committee.

However, after the constitution was adopted, Ambedkar tried to distance himself from both Congress and Hindutva forces like the Jana Sangh, and attempted to ally with progressive elements. 

Naturally, such politics put him at odds with the Congress, made him the logical political adversary and an electoral rival. Congress defeated Ambedkar in both elections, but at the same time, helped him get to the Rajya Sabha. 

As for the communists – who could have been a crucial ally in creating a broad coalition of the working classes and thereby change the course of the post independent history – they never seriously tried to forge strategic political ties with Ambedkar. While Ambedkar’s own ideological prejudice also played a role, the communists appear to be more responsible for this political blunder in the contemporary Indian history.

Whatever the case, the Hindutva forces in Indian politics – Hindu Mahasabha, RSS, and Jana Sangh – never supported Ambedkar’s election campaigns, nor did he seek their support.

That is the historical truth.

The Wire is now on WhatsApp. Follow our channel for sharp analysis and opinions on the latest developments.