'Eye on Dalit votes, not their welfare', BJP hits out at Congress over Channi's appointment as Punjab CM

BJP on Monday accused the Congress of paying “lip service” to Dalits with the sole aim of appointing Charanjit Singh Channi as Punjab Chief Minister to grab their votes in the assembly elections next year.

Latching on senior Congress leader Harish Rawat's remarks that the Punjab election campaign would be led by state unit chief Navjyot Singh Sidhu, BJP national secretary Vijay Sonkar cited previous ocassions when the Congress had appointed Dalit leaders as chief ministers, only to dump them after elections.

Sonkar said Dalit leaders - Jagannath Pahadia and Sushilkumar Shinde - were appointed chief ministers of Rajasthan and Maharashtra ahead of polls and were replaced after the elections were won.

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“The Congress mentality with regard to Dalits has been exposed by Harish Rawat’s statement. Channi has been made the Chief Minister ahead of the polls, and Rawat has declared Sidhu as the face of the campaign,” Sonkar said.

Congress had appointed Shinde as the chief minister of Maharashtra in 2003 and replaced him with Vilasrao Deshmukh after winning the 2004 elections. In 1980, Pahadia was appointed as Rajasthan Chief Minister with one year to go for the polls only to be replaced by Shiv Charan Mathur.

BSP supremo Mayawati also hit out at the Congress saying that the party remembered Dalits only in times of crisis or helplessness and dubbed Channi's appointment as an “electoral gimmick”.

“Dalits need to be very alert to their double standards. I have full faith that Dalits of Punjab will not fall for this stunt,” Mayawati said.

In a quick damage control exercise, AICC general secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala said Rawat’s remarks were “misrepresented” and that both Channi and Siddhu would be the face of the party's election campaign in Punjab.