Ujjain: Ravidas community has decided to voice its concern after it became clear that political parties including the BJP and Congress did not choose any of its members as their candidate for the ensuing polls. The members of Ravidas (SC) community, which mainly comprises of 16 sub-castes, from SC-reserved Ujjain-Alote and Dewas-Shajapur parliamentary constituencies. The Ravidas Samaj has now threatened to either field its own candidates as independent or may also opt for NOTA.
Addressing a joint press conference on Friday evening, Ravidas Samaj leaders Suresh Kusmariya, Chunnilal Dhairya, Harish Bhartiya, Prakash Dabi, Babulal Baghela and Omprakash Mohne said both the main national parties have neglected their Samaj for the past so many years. They claimed that about 2.75 lakh voters of the community reside in Ujjain-Alote constituency while their number in Dewas-Shajapur constituency is more than 3 lakh. They said that none of their community leaders had been given ticket from any SC-reserved seat during Assembly Elections-2018 and such a policy of BJP and Congress have led to dis-satisfaction in the community members.
The Ravidas Samaj delegations met the senior BJP and Congress leaders at Bhopal several times and urged them to tip their community fellows as candidates from any of the two reserved parliamentary constitutions, to no avail. The community leaders also said that both BJP and Congress have announced their candidates for Ujjain-Alote parliamentary seat overlooking the claim of Ravidas Samaj. Congress even finalised its ticket from Dewas-Shajapur constituency, where it again preferred a member of Balai community as its candidate. If these parties do not change their candidate, we may field independent candidate or may opt for NOTA, they warned.
Ravidas Samaj to decide its strategy today
A meeting of various SC communities was convened on Friday, in which different representatives objected on the neglect of members of their community for party ticket whose voters are comparatively less than their community in both the parliamentary constituencies of Ujjain division. According to Jaiprakash Joonwal, SC communities comprises 15.40 per cent of population in MP and among them 7.42 per cent of them belong to Charmkar Samaj. This community comes under Ravidas Samaj, but it has been completely sidelined by the major political parties in ticket distribution. To decide on further course of action, an extended meeting of the Ravidas Samaj has been organised on Saturday at 5 pm at Dr Ambedkar Hospital, near Manchhaman Ganesh Mandir, he added.