Telangana polls: BRS and Congress use Dalits as vote banks, says Mayawati

Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) Supremo Mayawati said that Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao was not concerned about the welfare of the Dalit community and considered it his vote bank, a Deccan Chronicle (DC) report said. She also accused him of politically suppressing the community.

She was speaking at an election rally in support of the BSP candidate, Dasari Usha from Peddapalli. She invoked B R Ambedkar and said that he had written the constitution to ensure that the weaker sections of the society were not deprived of opportunities like education, employment, and participation in politics, the DC report said.

She said that the Kanshiram led the movement, which laid demands for the implementation of the Mandal Commission recommendations, and this resulted in people from other backward classes getting an enhanced representation in education and jobs.

Mayawati said that when she won the Lok Sabha election in 1988, she was promised a union minister's post, but she refused it and asked for the implementation of the Mandal Commission report.

The BSP supremo said that Congress did not want to give the Bharat Ratna to Dr Ambedkar and did not express condolences when Kanshiram died, implying that the BRS and Congress both were against Dalit communities.

She added, "The people must teach a fitting lesson to the BJP, BRS, and the Congress, which are inclined against the OBC, SC, and ST communities. The people elect the BSP to hand over power to the weaker sections."

The elections in Telangana will be held on November 30, and the results will be declared on December 3. The Telangana Assembly has 119 seats, and a party needs to win at least 60 to gain a majority.