Uttar Pradesh minister Suresh Kumar Khanna visits the 'Constitution Gallery' at the Maha Kumbh Mela 2025.
Credit: PTI Photo
Lucknow: In an apparent bid to blunt the opposition’s charge that it wanted to scrap the reservation for the SC/ST and OBC, the BJP leaders distributed copies of Constitution among the sanitary workers at the ongoing Mahakumbh in Prayagraj to what the party leaders said ‘affirm’ the party’s commitment to the Constitution.
The move came days after the Samajwadi Party (SP) leaders installed a statue of the party founder Mulayam Singh Yadav at a camp being run by the party at the Mahakumbh.
Leaders of BJP on Thursday distributed copies of the Constitution among the sanitary workers, who numbered in thousands, at the Mahakumbh. ‘’Kumbh is a festival of unity which is guaranteed by the Constitution,’’ BJP state secretary Abhijeet Msihra said.
BJP leaders said that the distribution of the copies of the Constitution was aimed at dispelling the false claims being made by the opposition that the saffron party would amend the Constitution to do away the reservation for the SC/ST and the OBC.
BJP has launched a ‘’Samvidhan Gaurav Abhiyan’’ on the occasion of completion of 75 years of the Indian Constitution and as part of the campaign, the party was felicitating the dalits across the state.
‘’We have come here (Mahakumbh) to felicitate those (dalits), who were considered merely vote banks by the opposition parties,’’ Mishra said.
The opposition parties, especially the Congress had, during the last year’s general elections, had claimed that the BJP’s slogan of ' ‘Mission 400’’ was in fact aimed at amending the Constitution to tinker with the reservation. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi displayed a copy of the Constitution at his election meetings.
The BJP suffered a serious electoral setback in Uttar Pradesh and the party’s tally came down to 33 from 62 in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls