Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Wednesday said his party always stood for tribals and was committed to protect their right to Jal-Jungle-Zameen (water, forest and land).
Addressing an election rally in Sukma town in Chhattisgarh’s Bastar region, he said Prime Minister Narendra Modi does not want power to go into the hands of the poor.
The tribal-dominated and Naxalite-affected Sukma district has one assembly segment Konta, which is among the 20 constituencies where polling will be held in the first phase of Assembly elections.
“When Modiji laid the foundation stone for the new Parliament building, then President Ram Nath Kovind was not invited because he is an 'achhoot' (untouchable) and incumbent President Droupadi Murmu was not invited at its inauguration because she is from a Scheduled Tribe,”, he said. “Only two people do such work, Modi and (Amit) Shah,” he added.
He claimed that presidents belonging to Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe communities have been elected but they did not get a chance to lay the foundation stone of any building.
He slammed the BJP for questioning what the Congress did in 60 years, and claimed the saffron party does not do anything except abuse the Congress.
"We are here to protect the (tribal) community, the constitution, democracy and the country."
Konta seat is currently held by state minister Kawasi Lakhma, an influential tribal leader of the Congress. The five-term MLA is seeking a third straight term from this seat.
Voting for the 90-member Chhattisgarh Assembly will be held on November 7 and 17.