BENGALURU: Even as Chief Minister Siddaramaiah received overwhelming support at the Congress party’s ‘Janandolana’ in Mysuru on Friday, a section of Dalit ideologues stayed away, in protest against the party’s Dalit MLAs for keeping mum over Scheduled Castes Sub Plan/ Tribal Sub Plan (SCSP/TSP) grants of about Rs 25,000 crore being allegedly diverted to fund the guarantee schemes.
This anger against the Siddaramaiah government is likely to be more visible in the coming days. “It is just the beginning and we will continue to gherao the MLAs for not speaking against the diversion of grants meant for SC/STs. We are not Congress party workers to take part in their Janandolana,” DSS leader Mavalli Shankar told TNIE.
Led by Shankar and noted writer Kotiganahalli Ramaiah, members of a section of Dalit organisations staged protests outside the residences of Dalit MLAs S N Narayanaswamy of Bangarapet and Roopakala Shashidhar of KGF in Kolar district.
During Siddaramaiah’s 75th birthday, celebrated as ‘Siddaramotsava’ in Davanagere in 2022, scores of Dalits had taken part and thrown their weight behind the leader of AHINDA -- Kannada acronym for minorities, backward classes and Dalits -- and endorsed his leadership.
But over time, Siddaramaiah appears to have lost the sympathy of a section of Dalits due to various factors, including his alleged political animosity with AICC president Mallikarjuna Kharge who had sacrificed the opposition leader’s post for him in 2009, observed a Dalit leader. In order to blunt the aversion of a section of Dalits, the CM has declared that he will abide by the classification of SC quota, following the Supreme Court’s recent judgement that state governments can take a decision on their own in this regard.
Interestingly, on Thursday, BJP state president BY Vijayendra held a meeting with some Dalit organisations under the leadership of Karnataka Legislative Council’s leader of opposition Chalavadi Narayanaswamy, and took them into confidence. It is part of the strategy to mobilise more Dalit members for the BJP-JDS padayatra that concludes in Mysuru on Saturday.