New Delhi: In the Lokniti-CSDS-ABP News 'Mood of the Nation'  survey, it was found that if there is one community among which the BJP has taken a severe beating in the last five months, it is the Dalits.

Massive nation-wide protests by Dalits against Supreme Court’s judgment over SC/ST atrocities act has put the ruling Bharatiya Janta Party in the back foot. The protests were also followed by several Dalit leaders and MPs writing to Prime Minister Narendra Modi discussing their concerns, which has also put a big question mark on the government.

Disappointed with the government indifference to rising atrocities against them and angry with the Supreme Court mandated changes to the SC-ST Act, a sizeable section of the community seems to have turned its back on the BJP. Only 22% of the Dalits were found to be supporting the BJP in the current survey.

Not only is this a massive drop of 9 percentage points compared to the previous survey in January, it is also two points less compared to the Dalit vote received by the BJP during the 2014 Lok Sabha election.

Moreover, for the first time since the 2014 election, the Congress leads the BJP among Dalits. India’s principal opposition party is netting as much as 23% of Dalit votes as opposed to BJP’s 22%.

This same pattern can be witnessed among Adivasis too – the Congress is now getting more Adivasi votes nationally as compared to the BJP, 38% as opposed to 36%.

This is a remarkable recovery for the Congress among Adivasis since only 28% of them had voted for the party in the national election four years ago.

The survey found both Dalits and Adivasis to be disappointed with the attitude shown by the Narendra Modi government to the rising atrocities against them.

Three in five Dalits (60%) and over half the Adivasis (54%) said that they were dissatisfied with the concern shown by the Modi government towards growing crimes and atrocities against them (only about one-third across the two communities said they were satisfied).

On the question of the changes to the SC-ST Act which would prevent the immediate arrest of an accused, 57% of Dalits and 62% of the Adivasis were found to be opposed to it. Interestingly, a fairly high degree of opposition to the changes in the SC-ST Act was also seen among OBC voters (43%).

Dalits and Adivasis have not only shifted their vote preference but their prime ministerial preference as well.

Congress President Rahul Gandhi, who was the PM choice of 18% Dalits and 27% Adivasis in January, is now the choice of 25% Dalits and 30% Adivasis. Modi on the other hand has seen his favorability drop from 35% to 25% among Dalits and from 42% to 37% among Adivasis.