‘Why didn’t Cong elevate Dalits to CM post?’

Hubballi: If Congress cares for Dalits, why leaders like Mallikarjun Kharge, Dr G Parameshwara, B Rachaiyya and others have not been elevated to the chief minister’s post, asked former minister and BJP leader Govind Karjol.
Addressing a convention of BJP SC, ST workers, Karjol said if Congress was the official opposition party in the Lok Sabha, then it would have not chosen Kharge as the leader of opposition.

“When asked recently about his position as opposition leader, Kharge had said ‘na gaadi na ghoda’. If Congress really had cared for Dalits, then Dr B R Ambedkar would have not left the party. In the Parliament itself, Ambedkar was defeated badly by the Congress, particularly by Nehru. But BJP made Ramanath Kovind, a Dalit, as the President of India,” he said.

“A single family of the Congress party enjoyed power for 36 years and in 56 years of its rule, Congress has done nothing for Dalits, instead it has been pushing Dalits into problems,” he alleged.

“Congress president Rahul Gandhi doesn’t know the financial condition of the country. Just for election, he has announced Rs 72,000 cash transfer per year to 25 crore people. For his scheme to succeed Rs 18 lakh crore is needed and our country’s total budget itself is Rs 25 lakh crore. Congress was restricted to 42 seats in 2014 because of its divisive politics. In Karnataka, former chief minister Siddaramaiah and current CM Kumarswamy have also not done anything for Dalits,” he said.

While appealing workers to vote for Pralhad Joshi, Karjol said this is the time to choose good people. “Joshi is a well cultured person and has a good background. Such persons need to be elected and goonda elements should not be supported,” Karjol added.

“If given a chance to represent Dharwad for the fourth time, Joshi said he would work as a pradhan sevak of Dalits till their standard of living improves and their areas see development. Under Ujjwala scheme, nearly 34,000 families were given LPG gas cylinders and 30% of MPLAD funds were spent for the upliftment of Dalits, he added. Kudachi MLA P Rajeev said after former union minister Anath Kumar, only Joshi has the potential to be a link between state and the Union government.

Former BJP MLAs Veerabhadrappa Halaharavi, Manohar Ainapur and other party leaders were present.