Bengaluru, Feb 24 (IANS) Karnataka Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) General Secretary and State Coordinator of its training campaign, P. Rajeev, alleged on Tuesday that the Congress has exploited Dalits for political purposes across the country.

He said the demand for a Dalit Chief Minister in Karnataka surfaces only when the Congress feels its political existence is under threat.

Speaking at a press conference held at the state BJP office, Jagannath Bhavan, in Bengaluru, Rajeev said that whenever the Congress senses a decline in its political standing or when Dalits begin distancing themselves from the party, it raises the slogan of a Dalit Chief Minister to appease the community.

He said this was merely an attempt to mislead Dalits and that the Congress had not delivered justice to them.

He added that even though the State Budget has increased significantly compared to the Covid-19 period, the current Congress-led Karnataka government has not allocated funds to the Dalit community at the same level as the previous BJP government did during the pandemic.

Rajeev said that across the country, Dalits have received greater justice under non-Congress governments.

Responding to another query, he added that land ownership remains a distant dream for many Dalits in Karnataka.

He alleged that the present Congress-led state government has not provided even a single gunta of land to Dalit farmers.

He urged people to compare the number of Dalits who became landowners under land ownership and housing schemes during the tenure of former Chief Ministers B.S. Yediyurappa and Basavaraj Bommai with the number of beneficiaries under the current Congress government’s tenure.

Rajeev also said that a training workshop for district teams across Karnataka will be held on February 26 at the Scouts and Guides Hall under the Chairmanship of State BJP President B.Y. Vijayendra and in the presence of BJP National General Secretary (Organisation) B.L. Santhosh.

He added that a team has been appointed from each training district in the state.

He said that training sessions will be conducted at 1,156 locations.

On an average, about 200 office-bearers will participate in each session, and more than two lakh office-bearers will be trained as part of the campaign.

State Coordinator of the training campaign Vikas Kumar. P and campaign members Madhushree Manjunath and Poornima Prakash were also present at the press conference.

–IANS

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