BHOPAL: With an eye on the 16% Dalit vote, the Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led BJP government organised the Ambedkar Mahakumbh in Gwalior on Sunday. The CM, along with senior BJP leaders, including two union ministers Narendra Singh Tomar and Jyotiraditya Scindia addressed a gathering of scheduled caste population.
Chouhan listed the initiatives taken by his government for the uplift of backward and downtrodden sections on five counts — Panch Krantis (five revolutions) — including education, employment, land for living, women empowerment and respect for all.
Just two days after he had made his government’s decision public — to link the Panch Teerthas (five pilgrimages) of Dr BR Ambedkar’s life with the flagship Mukhya Mantri Teerth Darshan Yojana — the CM made an announcement for the welfare of all sub castes of scheduled caste category.
The scheduled caste category has many sub castes, including Jatav, Khatik, Valmiki, Chowdhary, Balayi and Saket. “We’ll constitute a Welfare Board for each sub caste of the scheduled caste category,” Chouhan announced. He also talked about allocating land for establishing Baba Sahab Ambedkar Dham and Sansthan in Gwalior. Addressing the gathering, union civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia lashed out against his old party — the Congress.
“I want to ask those politicians who insult the backward sections, but don’t apologize and also those leaders who turn self-proclaimed messiahs of Dalits at the time of polls, where were they and what have they done for the downtrodden in the last 75 years.”
“In 1952 when Dr BR Ambedkar contested the Lok Sabha polls, why did the Congress field a candidate against him, why did the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru campaign against him, resulting in his defeat? It’s time now for all of us to not only question the Congress party, but also take revenge for it,” Scindia said.
Importantly, the SC category voters constitute around 16% vote in MP and 35 out of the 230 assembly seats are reserved for SC category. In the 2013 elections, when the BJP had won a total 165 seats, it had emerged victorious on 80% of these 35 SC reserved seats.
Initiatives taken to uplift backward sections
MP CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan listed the initiatives taken by his government for the uplift of backward sections on five counts — Panch Krantis (five revolutions) — including education, employment, land for living, women empowerment and respect for all. He also made
an announcement for the welfare of all sub castes of scheduled caste category.