Congress to connect with dalits through padyatra in UP

Lucknow: The Congress is Uttar Pradesh will now be taking out a “Sanvidhan Bachao Padyatra” in which it will establish a direct contact with dalits and apprise them of the rights given to them in the Indian Constitution.

According to the state chairman of the party SC/ST Cell, Bhagwati Prasad Chaudhary, party workers will fan out into villages and inform the people how efforts are being made to curtail their rights by the BJP.

The workers will also inform dalits how the Congress has worked to empower the community and the steps taken by the party for their welfare.

“The Congress has been making efforts to bring the marginalised and deprived sections of society into the social mainstream and ensure their all round development,” he explained.

Dalits, it may be recalled, were once the core vote base of the Congress along with minorities and brahmin. The party now wants to win back its traditional voters and regain lost glory.

Dalits constitute 21 of the state’s population while Muslims also account for 20 per cent and brahmin share is 13 per cent of the total population.

“Dalits left us and went to the BSP in the nineties but in the past two and a half decades, they have seen that they did not benefit under the BSP government. The memorials constructed by Ms Mayawati may have given dalits a sense of self pride but the ground realities have remained unchanged. In the four years of Modi rule, atrocities on dalits increased manifold and the BJP merely provided lip service to the community,” said Mr Chaudhary.

He added that the dilution of the SC/ST Act would deal a death blow to the dalit community and increase atrocities on them.

The Congress now plans to appoint district level coordinators who will maintain a dialogue with dalits in their region and also help them in any crisis.

The party will also set up “Dalit Help Centres” in every district which will provide legal help to these sections of society.