Thursday, Apr 25, 2024 | Last Update : 10:19 AM IST
Dalits to play key role in deciding next PM: Congress
There are 84 parliamentary seats which are reserved for the scheduled castes across the country.
New Delhi: The Congress on Sunday said that dalits, who were angry with the NDA government, would play a key role in deciding the country’s next Prime Minister and support Congress president Rahul Gandhi for the post.
Dalit youth will get attracted to Mr Gandhi’s leadership for a positive future than other non-BJP/NDA leaders, including those representing the community, newly-appointed chairman of the Congress’ SC department Nitin Raut said.
Dismissing Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent claim that his government has honoured dalit icon B.R. Ambedkar like no other previous dispensation, Mr Raut accused Mr Modi and the BJP of issuing such statements only eyeing the community’s votes.
Dalits, especially the community youth, are feeling angry under the NDA’s regime. They are being denied educational, employment opportunities which never happened when the Congress was in power. This anger will make dalits play a key role in deciding the next prime minister, he said.
In the run up to the next Lok Sabha polls, the Congress SC/ST department will focus hard on uniting as many Dalits as possible under the Congress’ umbrella to see that Mr Gandhi becomes the Prime Minister.
There are 84 parliamentary seats which are reserved for the scheduled castes across the country. The BJP had won more of these seats than any other party in the 2014 general elections. The Congress could win only 3-4 of these reserved seats, he noted.
Mr Raut said that his party would try and win maximum seats possible in 2019 based on the works governments led by the Congress had done for the dalits.
At a time when dalit voters are divided and follow several leaders like Jignesh Mevani, Mr Raut said the community members will be attracted to Mr Gandhi nationally as he is more likely to become the Prime Minister than the former.
Dalits have no option but to look at the Congress, if they don’t want BJP at the Centre again given no other party than either of these two will be able to form the next government, he added.
“Dalits have accepted, honoured leaders like Mevani or the others. But these leaders are yet to establish their parties nationally. So, they can't be Prime Minister,” Mr Raut said.
