Bengaluru, July 16 (IANS) The Karnataka BJP has dubbed the AICC OBC Advisory Council meeting in Bengaluru as political drama staged by the Congress in the backdrop of the upcoming Bihar Assembly elections and asked the party if it could declare chief Mallikarjun Kharge as the Prime Ministerial candidate.

The party further challenged the Congress to declare AICC President Mallikarjun Kharge, a veteran Dalit leader, as its Prime Ministerial candidate if it truly cares about the welfare of SCs, STs, and OBCs.

Speaking to the media at the BJP headquarters on Wednesday, Karnataka BJP President, B.Y. Vijayendra stated, “The Congress party’s OBC panel meeting has made national headlines. Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has claimed that the committee has the responsibility of carrying forward the social movement in the country. He also alleged that the BJP has always opposed reservations and social justice.

“I want to ask CM Siddaramaiah, the national Congress leaders, and Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi whether they genuinely care about the OBCs, SCs, STs, and minorities.”

“I challenge LoP Rahul Gandhi — if the Congress truly cares about the Backward Classes, SCs, and STs — let him declare Mallikarjun Kharge as the Prime Ministerial candidate. But they won’t. The Gandhi family won’t allow it. Neither Rahul Gandhi nor Sonia Gandhi will approve it,” Vijayendra claimed.

He alleged that the agenda of the OBC meeting was not the uplift or development of OBCs, but rather electoral gains in Bihar.

“This is the real agenda. With Bihar elections approaching, the AICC OBC panel meeting is being held in Bengaluru — a move that holds no real importance. It is nothing more than a political gimmick aimed at the upcoming Bihar polls,” he claimed.

Vijayendra further alleged that CM Siddaramaiah had discarded the Kantharaj Commission’s caste census report — prepared at a cost of Rs 165 crore — at the behest of LoP Gandhi.

“The Mandal Commission report was not implemented during the Congress regime. The Kaka Kalelkar Commission (first Backward Classes commission) report of 1956 was also dismissed by Pandit Nehru,” he said.

“Can a party that treated SCs, STs, OBCs, and minorities as slaves of the Gandhi family now claim to deliver justice to them? Why has the Congress suddenly formed an OBC panel? It’s all because the Bihar Assembly elections are around the corner. They see Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah as an AHINDA and OBC poster boy. They must be under illusion,” Vijayendra claimed.

He added, “CM Siddaramaiah should remember that after Independence, the Congress ruled the country for 55 to 60 years, and one family ruled it for 50 years.”

“If Siddaramaiah and the Congress now claim that injustice has been done to the OBCs, SCs, STs, and minorities — it is the Congress that is responsible for it,” he concluded.

–IANS

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