The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has promised to increase reservation in education and employment to Scheduled Tribes (STs) from the present 3 per cent to 7.5 per cent if it is voted to power in the next Assembly election. It also promised a commission for STs.
At the Valmiki Parivarthana Samavesha, a State-level congregation of Scheduled Tribes mobilised by the BJP’s ST Morcha at Lingsugur in Raichur district on Sunday, party leaders, including State unit president B.S. Yeddyurappa, Leader of Opposition in Legislative Council K.S. Eshwarappa, the former Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar, the former Ministers C.T. Ravi, B. Sriramulu, Shobha Karandlaje, Govind Karjol, Shivanagowda Naik and R. Ashok, appealed to ST communities to support their party in the next Assembly election so that they could get increased reservation benefits.
“We will fulfil the long-pending demand of providing 7.5 per cent reservation to STs through various legal procedures,” Mr. Yeddyurappa said. “The Congress and Siddaramaiah have completely forgotten the oppressed and marginalised communities after assuming power in the State. They are indeed ‘dead’ for the people who voted them to power with great expectations. Development has become a mirage in the State under the Congress regime,” Mr. Yeddyurappa said.
Referring to several development and welfare initiatives introduced during the BJP tenure, Mr. Yeddyurappa said that the Congress did not continue them with the same intensity.
“We had distributed over three lakh Bhagyalakshmi bonds when we were in power. The number of the bonds distributed has come down to around one lakh. The government has declared 115 taluks in the State as drought-hit, though the number of drought-hit taluks is over 140. However, not a single rupee is released to take up relief work,” he said.
Mr. Yeddyurappa said that people who were already fed up with Congress rule in the State would bless his party in the next Assembly election. He declared that he would tour the State and build the party from the grassroots level.
“We will win at least 150 seats and form the next government in the State,” he said.
Mr. Eshwarappa criticised the Congress government in the State by calling it a “heartless government”. “The Congress came to power by promising development of backward classes. It has cheated them by neglecting their issues. These communities will teach the Congress a lesson in the next Assembly polls,” he said.
B. Sriramulu condemned the attempts by “vested interests” to hijack Maharshi Valmiki by projecting the backward community saint as a Brahmin.
Development has become a mirage in the State under the Congress regime.
B.S. YeddyurappaBJP State unit president
