New Delhi, July 25: The BJP has rejected a demand from its Rajput MPs to re-induct Dayashankar Singh and project his wife Swati as a central campaigner for next year's Uttar Pradesh polls, sources said.

Dayashankar had been a state BJP vice-president before being expelled from the party for six years last week for using foul language against Bahujan Samaj Party president Mayawati.

"We are not looking at his utterances as a political event that could yield mileage. Nor is it a caste-specific development for us. Language of the kind he used cannot be brooked," BJP spokesperson Shrikant Sharma said.

"We had to act to send a message to all those prone to saying intemperate things. Nobody will be allowed to derail our agenda, which is: governance, development and people's welfare."

The BJP has another, and more important, reason too to crack down on caste abuse from within. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is personally overseeing the execution of a "pro-Dalit" blueprint, aimed at reinforcing the party's "commitment" to Babasaheb Ambedkar's legacy.

Modi has tried to appropriate Ambedkar for the BJP to try and offset the Sangh parivar's lack of heroes from the freedom movement. He has also co-opted an 87-year-old Buddhist monk, Dhama Viriyo, once associated with Mayawati and her mentor Kanshi Ram.

Modi projected the monk in a big way when he addressed a public meeting in Mhow, Ambedkar's village, on April 14, Babasaheb's 125th birth anniversary.

The BJP has organised a long-drawn Dhamma Chetna Yatra led by the monk, who goes around telling his audience that Mayawati had snubbed him. Party president Amit Shah will address the yatra in Agra on July 31.

"We don't want to upset the programme by saying anything that may be construed as anti-Dalit. So Dayashankar has to be kept at arm's length," a BJP source said.

After Dayashankar's comments, Mayawati's activists had hit Lucknow's streets and allegedly abused Swati and her daughter.

Dayashankar's mother lodged an FIR against Mayawati and her party colleague Naseemuddin Siddiqui, who had led the protest. But Mayawati has been unapologetic.

The Rajput pressure on the BJP brass comes at a time the party is in danger of falling between two stools. It had taken the Brahmins, Rajputs, Kayasthas and Banias for granted until the Congress rattled it by leading its campaign with the Brahmin Sheila Dikshit.

Yesterday, as the yatra snaked through Aligarh, Mayawatis' activists halted it to ask the Buddhist priests why they were associating with the BJP in the garb of religion. "We'll pressure the priests to call off the yatra," a BSP source said.

All this while, the BJP's Rajput MPs are growing impatient and asking the leadership to "reach out" to Dayashankar.

Dayashankar has become a symbol of Rajput "pride" overnight. Swati is being seen as a woman in the tradition of Rani Padmini, who chose to die rather than submit to a victorious enemy.

"She is fighting for her honour and that of her mother-in-law and daughter," a state BJP source said.

To placate the restive Rajputs, the party arranged a meeting between Swati and governor Ram Naik on Sunday. The state government has been asked to bolster the family's security.

The BJP is mulling fielding Swati from Ballia, Dayashankar's hometown, in the Assembly elections.