Dalits are not feeling at home with Mayawati's BSP : Rahul Gandhi

Rajiv Nagar, Kanpur, Mar 31 (UNI) In an apparent attempt to erode dalit vote base of Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party, Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi today said the present regime in UP could never work for the welfare of dalits.

Hitting out on the Mayawati government on the dalit issue, the young Congress MP from Amethi while narrating an incident in the state party convention quoted a dalit person as saying that Indira Gandhi and Kanshi Ram used to be their saviours but present UP government had ditched them.

In his speech on the concluding session of the two-day state open convention of the Congress here, Rahul Gandhi narrated two incidents to the delegates, one on his recent visit of Karnataka and another of a dalit person in a backward village in the state while dubbing Mayawati government as 'anti-dalit'.

He said when he went to a village in UP recently, a dalit man holding his hand dragged him inside his house. ''When I entered his house alone, without my security or other persons there was no electricity and when I asked him did this village have no electricity, the dalit man, who continued to hold my hands plainly said Indira and Kanshi Ram always cared for us but the present state government has ditched us''.

In another story, Rahul said when he was in Karnataka recently, during his road show he met 3-4 youths from UP. ''When I asked them what were they doing in Karnataka, they told me that future of youths of UP now lie in Karnataka,'' he said.

Joining both the incidents to the plight of dalits, poor and youth during the present political dispensation in Uttar Pradesh, he said, ''If Congress wants to go forward then it has to join both the issues, address these with the help of the arms and tools of development and projects launched by the Central government.' Specially mentioning the efforts of the Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to address the problems of the poor in the country, particularly through National Rural Employment Gurantee Scheme (NREGS), he said from tomorrow all the districts of the country will be covered by the scheme where poor would be provided at least 100 days employment.

Rahul Gandhi said if the Congressmen adopted their political postures on the basis of the Centrally sponsored projects,there was in no way anyone could stop the party from reviving in the state.

Earlier, the Amethi MP was given a warm recption by the delegates and his speech was punctuated with appluase and slogans in his favour.

UNI MB SB AKJ KN1638