Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar Azad “Raavan” on Sunday claimed that his outfit and not the Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party is the “real well-wisher” of the Dalit community. In March, Azad had announced that he will contest against Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Varanasi in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

Azad was speaking to reporters in Madhya Pradesh’s Mhow after paying tributes at a memorial for Dr BR Ambedkar on his birth anniversary. “Babasaheb had some great dreams, which have not yet been fulfilled,” Azad said. “Which is why, I have come here and I will fulfil all the dreams of this great and visionary person.”

Ambedkar was born in Mhow on April 14, 1891.

The Lok Sabha elections is being held in seven phases from April 11 to May 19, and the results will be declared on May 23. The election in Varanasi will be held on the last day, May 19.

The Bhim Army is a Dalit rights organisation active in western Uttar Pradesh. Azad had first risen to prominence when he was arrested in connection with caste violence in Uttar Pradesh’s Saharanpur in 2017, after which he was booked under the National Security Act. He was released in September 2018.