Deviprasad Shetty, president of the district unit of Janata Dal (Secular), said on Friday that the party would organise a district-level convention of minority communities at Udyavar near Udupi in the first week of December.
Addressing presspersons in Udupi, Mr. Shetty said top leaders of the State unit of JD(S) would participate in the convention. After the convention, the party would launch a campaign to attract people and leaders of minority communities to the party. He said the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) indulged in vote bank politics with the minority communities. The Congress had failed to implement the Sachar Committee report. The BJP government in the State had not given representation to any member of Muslim community in the State Cabinet.
The BJP was playing communal politics in the State. As far as minority communities were concerned, the BJP and Congress were two faces of the same coin.
When there were communal problems in Udupi and Dakshina Kannada districts, neither the BJP nor the Congress came to the rescue of the minority communities, he said.
It was only the JD(S) which stood for the minority communities. The JD(S) was making efforts to bring minority communities to the mainstream. When JD(S) leader H.D. Kumaraswamy was the Chief Minister, many persons from the minority communities were appointed to prominent positions and also included in the State Cabinet, he said.
