Cong viewed Dalits as vote bank in Karnataka, says BY Vijayendra

He was speaking at the inaugural meeting of the state SC Morcha at the BJP state office ‘Jagannath Bhavan’ in Malleswaram.

BENGALURU: The Bharatiya Janata Party is galvanising Dalit support as it gradually moves into pre-election mode. The party, that hiked SC and ST reservations just months before the 2023 election, did not gain any votes, and instead, saw a drop of 10 seats in the assembly polls.

This time, the party has aggressively lined up several programmes to gain SC/ST votes in the Lok Sabha election. 

On Thursday, BJP state president BY Vijayendra slammed the Congress, asking, “After continuously seeking votes for five decades in the name of Dr Ambedkar, what benefit have they given the Dalits? Will it take 50-60 years to uplift the community?” He was speaking at the inaugural meeting of the state SC Morcha at the BJP state office ‘Jagannath Bhavan’ in Malleswaram.

Acutely aware that Dalits had en bloc supported the Congress, one of the reasons being Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge is a Dalit, and the BJP has been striving hard to overcome the advantage the Congress has.

“The Congress had seen Dalits as just a vote-bank and failed to provide justice to the community,” Vijayendra said.

He raised the issue of former Congress MLA Akhanda Srinivasamurthy’s house being set on fire but being denied a ticket for the sake of minority votes.

SC Morcha state president Chalavadi Narayanaswamy, who moved from the Congress to the BJP, said, “Our government has given many programmes for Dalits. It made 11,000 pourakarmikas permanent. The Congress government used Rs 11,700 crore of funds meant for Dalits, to provide guarantee schemes.”

Courtesy : TNIE

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