SC/STs to have a huge impact in Karnataka polls, says Surjewala

AICC general secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala on Tuesday said the SC/STs will have a “huge impact” on the upcoming Legislative Assembly election.

“The BJP government’s decision to hike SC/ST reservation has been declared a dud by the union government, which has said in a written reply to Parliament that there’s no proposal to increase the quota,” Surjewala told DH during an interaction.

On Tuesday, Surjewala and other Congress leaders inducted into the party prominent SC leaders Ambanna Arolikar, Gopal, Sudama Dass and Srinivas. “They belong to organisations that are influential. These organisations had campaigned against Congress in the previous election on the internal reservation issue. Today, they are supporting Congress,” Surjewala said.

According to Surjewala, who oversees the party’s affairs in Karnataka, the previous Congress government’s inaction over implementing the A J Sadashiva Commission report on the internal reservation was among four reasons why the party lost the 2018 election. “The other reasons were the Lingayat religion issue, the Tipu Sultan issue that polarised votes against us and lack of control over the narrative,” he said.

Congress, he said, ensured its lawmakers chipped in during the Covid-19 pandemic by helping people. “Post-Covid, our narrative on corruption against the BJP government has penetrated even rural areas,” he said. “Just when it was ebbing out, the Madal Virupakshappa case happened and the narrative revived.”

The Congress is fighting the upcoming election with a “positive agenda” on the basis of its poll ‘guarantees’, Surjewala said. “We are refusing to play on the BJP’s Hindu-Muslim turf. We’re sticking to our turf,” he said.