With eye on 2017 polls, Congress holds dharna for SC, ST, OBC rights in Gandhinagar

Addressing party workers gathered from across Gujarat, state Congress president Bharatsinh Solanki said his party would make the fight for justice for the deprived classes a major issue for the 2017 Assembly elections.

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“This is just the beginning of the fight for justice for SCs, STs and OBCs, who account for about 85 per cent of the state’s population. We will soon take the fight to each and every corner of the state by holding such dharnas in every district headquarter and taluka,” Solanki said.

He said the state BJP government has failed to make sufficient budgetary allocations for boards and corporations set up to uplift those belonging to the the deprived classes.

Solanki claimed Congress during its rule in the state had came out with a number of schemes and projects and provided for special facilities in schools and other educational institutions for development of SCs, STs and OBCs.

Former state Congress president Arjun Modhwadia said the BJP government had overlooked the interest of SCs, STs and OBCs by reducing budgetary provisions for schemes meant for these classes.

Taking a dig at BJP leaders appointed as trustees of temple trusts in the state, Modhwadia said : “Those BJP leaders, who should have been priests in temples have become rulers and those who should have been rulers, have become priests.”

AICC spokesperson and MLA from Abdasa Shaktisinh Gohil said that the government was not filling up vacant posts of teachers in schools in areas inhabited people belonging to SC, ST and OBC communities.