Backward Dalit Association condemn Pande's candidature

Mumbai, June 7 (UNI) The National Backward and Dalit Association today condemned the selection of Mr Avinash Pande as Congress candidate for Rajya Sabha from Maharashtra Assembly, saying he had always been against the Dalits and Backward classes.

In a statement issued here, the association President Kishore P Gedam alleged that Mr Pande had slapped a Dalit deputy collector at his office in Nagpur and abused him.

He said the seat should have been given to an ally of the congress party which supported its secular ideology.

The backward classes in Maharashtra have always supported the Congress, but giving nomination to an anti-backward class worker was wrong, Mr Gedam said.

The NCP, BJP and Shiv Sena have extended support to industrialist Rahul Bajaj for the Rajya Sabha byelection, the seat which fell vacant due to the death of Mr Pramod Mahajan.

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