Patna, June 8 -- The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has decided to launch a Dalit outreach programme in poll-bound Bihar, with the move being seen as the ruling party's attempt to consolidate support among the Scheduled Caste (SC) electorate as well as to nullify Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's increasing bids to woo the community. The Bihar unit of BJP, which runs the state government in alliance with chief minister Nitish Kumar-led Janata Dal (United) and other smaller NDA partners, has decided to organise Sant Shiromani Ravidas Sammelan across the state from June 20. The proposed events to honour the 15th-century Bhakti saint, a Dalit icon, are being seen as the BJP's bid to target the Ravidas community ahead of the Bihar assembly polls scheduled for October-November this year. "The BJP and the NDA got more than 60% of the Dalit votes during the Lok Sabha polls. The purpose of this Dalit outreach is to increase their reach further or at least hold on to the percentage in view of the serious outreach effort launched by the Mahagathbandhan (grand alliance) parties. They are entering into our domain and this percentage might fall. The party leadership wants to maintain that number," Sanjay Paswan, former BJP Dalit Morcha president said. Last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi commemorated Ravidas' 647th birth anniversary in his Lok Sabha constituency Varanasi. Now, with the Bihar polls just months away, the BJP has decided to hold such conclaves in different districts. The proposed Dalit outreach move comes even before the seat-sharing talks among the NDA partners begin for the polls. Though the Ravidas community forms only 5% of Bihar's 78 million electorate, the scheduled castes, considered key supporters of the BJP and NDA, account for 19%. Party leaders said the plan to organise the Ravidas Sammelans was conceived last month, when former Congress president Rahul Gandhi visited the Ambedkar hostel in Darbhanga and targeted the state government and police for trying to stop him. "He (Gandhi) has also been organising Samvidhan Sammelan (Constitution conclave) during his visits and making false statements on reservations," a BJP leader claimed. "Every party tries to reach out to different sections ahead of polls. This is nothing new. But for the BJP, they are making sure that their voter base are not dented by a concerted effort of the grand alliance parties, particularly the Congress," Patna-based political expert Gyanendra Yadav, associate professor of sociology at the College of Commerce, said....