Asserting that the BJP-led NDA would return to power at the Centre in the general elections in 2014, BJP national Scheduled Caste Morcha president Dr Sanjaya Paswan said that his morcha was committed to expand 4 per cent of the total projected addition of 10 per cent in the vote share of the SC, ST, OBC and Dalit voters in the country. With a sizable SC population, Odisha would play a crucial role in achieving the target, he asserted at a Press meet here on Thursday.
“BJP is committed to expand its vote base in the SC, ST, Dalit and OBC whose vote share has gone up from 20 per cent to 30 per cent to capture power at the Center. Out of the projected additional 10 per cent, the SC Morcha alone would add 4 four per cent of votes to the party fold,” he claimed.
Pawan said the BJP had identified Dalit women, entrepreneurs, employees and institutions to inject their energy into the inclusive growth of the party base. Paswan said Odisha, with more than 16 per cent SC population, has great potential for the expansion of the party base and as a result, the State figures in the priority zone of the party for its growth.
Elaborating the strategy to expand its vote base, Paswan said that the
BJP had decided to reach out to the SC communities through symbolic personalities like former Union Minister Babu Jagjivan Ram, BSP founder Kansi Ram and former President K R Narayanan by observing their birth and death anniversaries. The BJP had already undertaken an experiment by taking up the innovative strategy at New Delhi and wanted to replicate it in the State units, he said.
learning that there are no member from among SC in the Naveen’s
Council of Ministers, Paswan expressed his surprise and described as a “serious offence”. Condemning the non -inclusion of any SC member in the Council of Ministers, he said “it was a case of total political un-touchability.”
To a question, he said, the present BJD Government was 'totally apathetic and insensitive' to the problems of the SCs who were being humiliated and attacked.
Dalits are the most tortured lot and untouchable in Odisha, he said, adding the BJD Government is not discharging its responsibility to the backward communities.