MCD polls: Congress says rights of Dalits, minorities to be priority if party wins  

NEW DELHI: Fighting for the “rights and protections” of Dalits and minorities will be the first priority if the Congress wins the civic elections in the national capital, the party’s Delhi unit chief Anil Chaudhary said on Monday. Chaudhary said the Congress would implement various social welfare schemes to empower these communities, particularly Dalit children, through quality education. 

Elections to the 250-ward Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) are scheduled for December 4 while the votes will be counted on December 7. “People have been looking forward to good governance in the MCD and there is no better choice than the Congress to fulfil that dream. We will implement various social welfare schemes to empower the Dalits and minorities,” he said.

He alleged that the BJP did not honour its promise of regularising temporary and contract employees of the MCD. “In its 2017 MCD election ‘Sankalp Patra’, the BJP had promised to regularise the temporary and contractual employees. In their 2022 manifesto, the BJP did not mention anything about it. Even (Delhi Chief Minister Arvind) Kejriwal had made many hollow promises to the Dalit community,” he said.

Earlier, Congress President Rahul Gandhi had launched an attack on the BJP accusing them of ‘not believing’ in the Constitution of India and trying to deprive Dalits, tribals, underpriviledged and minorities of their rights. 

He spoke at the programme to mark Lord Birsa Munda’s birth anniversary at Washim, where his Bharat Jodo Yatra entered on Tuesday with a big entourage, including leaders like party leader Balasaheb Thorat, former state president Manikrao Thakre, among others.