Former Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah (Photo | EPS)
BENGALURU: Senior Congress leader Siddaramaiah who, as the chief minister failed to take a decision on the implementation of Justice AJ Sadashiva commission’s report on the classification of the Scheduled Caste (SC) quota for internal reservation, has now declared that if Congress comes to power in Karnataka, they will take action.
The BJP government led by CM Basavaraj Bommai has been trying to impress upon the SC/STs by hiking the quota by 6 per cent ahead of the Assembly elections next year. Siddaramaiah attacked the police for arresting SC left community activists who had tried to lay siege to Bommai’s residence on Sunday, demanding implementation of the report.
“The BJP government has arrested the activists who were demanding the implementation of internal reservation. I condemn it,” he tweeted, and also promised that his party will accept the report, by taking all communities in the SC category into confidence, and recommend the Centre to implement it. In 2018, when Congress lost the assembly polls, the report was cited as one of the factors, after which, the SC left community has broadly leaned towards the BJP, it was said.
When various factions of the Dalit Sangharsha Samithi held a ‘cultural resistence’ rally on December 6, a resolution was passed to demand the implementation of the Justice AJ Sadashiva commission report. Congress which is scheduled to hold a SC/ST ‘Aikyata Samavesha’ in Chitradurga on January 8 is likely to make an announcement, sources said. The commission had submitted its report to the government in 2012 when DV Sadananda Gowda was the CM.
