BJP Dalit leader mounts pressure on Kejriwal over AAP’s stand on reservation

“It is due to its symbol, the broom, that the AAP emerged victorious. The broom is the main instrument of livelihood for safai karamcharis… The symbol attracted the safai karamcharis. Also most of them were promised regular jobs. Arvind Kejriwal also promised dalits loans without interest. AAP has not come clear on issue of reservation. We demand clarification,” Raj said.

Alleging that Kejriwal had participated in a discussion organised by Youth for Equality forum in JNU, Raj said “Everyone knows that Youth For Equality originated to oppose reservation. We want Kejriwal to clear his stand on the issue.”

The New Delhi parliamentary constituency has two reserved Assembly seats, whereas, South Delhi has three. West Delhi has one, East Delhi two, Northwest has four and Northeast has two reserved Assembly seats.

In the 2008 Assembly elections, the BJP had won only two of the 12 reserved seats. One of them was in Karol Bagh, which was won by its candidate S P Ratawal. The other was the Trilokpuri seat where MLA Sunil Kumar registered his victory.
However, in the Assembly elections in 2013, the BJP lost these two seats to the AAP and registered victory in two others — Bawana and Gokalpur.

In an attempt to woo OBCs and SCs in the capital, the party’s state unit had organised a mass meal in Burari. Yet, it failed to get the OBC vote in their kitty. The BJP was expected to gain on reserved seats as Congress seemed to lose its hold on these seats. However, what the BJP never gauged was that AAP would emerge as sole gainer on these seats.