Karnataka Congress to focus on SC/STs with Aikyata Samavesha on January 8

0
Highlights
  • The Congress leadership, in an apparent attempt to stop the ruling BJP from claiming credit for increasing the SC/ST quota by 6 per cent, is holding the ‘Aikyata Samavesha’ focusing on SC/ST communities at Chitradurga on January 8 and Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who gave Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra a miss in Karnataka, is likely to attend. “It is to create awareness that Congress has done a lot to these communities in the past and reassure them that the party is with them. They should not get misguided by the gimmickry of BJP,” said former deputy CM Dr G Parameshwara on Wednesday.
  • “BJP has been claiming it hiked the quota for SCs from 15 to 17 per cent and for STs from 3 to 7 per cent. But it was us who laid the foundation by setting up the Justice Nagamohan Das committee during the Congress-JDS rule. Let BJP give the quota hike a legal framework by introducing it in the 9th schedule of the Constitution,” he said.
  • Asked if the Dalit leadership will make a strong case for a Dalit chief minister if Congress comes to power, he said the party high command may draw inferences from the samavesha. The Bommai government has not allocated the funds proportionate to the population of SC/STs, while the Siddaramaiah government apportioned more, he claimed. “Then, a law was brought in to punish officials if they failed to spend funds allocated and the reservation was also given in contracts for SC/STs.
  • But the BJP government ended all these initiatives and we will present these facts at the samavesha,” he said. “The samavesha has been planned at Chitradurga as 52 per cent of the population is SC/ST and BJP has won five out of six Assembly seats there,” said ST Nayaka leader VS Ugrappa.
“BJP is dividing the 101 sub-castes within SCs and 52 among STs. The samavesha aims to unite all of them under one platform,” said former Union minister KH Muniyappa.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here