Tuesday, 21 September 2021 | PNS | Dehradun
Playing the Dalit card in Uttarakhand ahead of the crucial elections of the state assembly, the head of the campaign committee of Congress party and former chief minister Harish Rawat has said that he will work in the direction of making a Dalit Chief Minister in Uttarakhand. Addressing the Parivartan Yatra of the Congress party in Laksar in Haridwar on Monday, Rawat said that the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) in Punjab has chosen a person belonging to a poor Dalit family as chief minister unanimously. He said that the Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi should be thanked for taking this decision. Rawat added that it is his dream that one day a Dalit is made the CM of Uttarakhand. In an attempt to strike an emotional chord with the Dalit community, Rawat said that it is not important how many Dalits are with Congress party but what is important that they had always supported Congress party in the past. Requesting the people of Haridwar to repeat 2009 in the assembly elections of 2022 when all 11 seats of Haridwar district were won by the Congress party. Rawat reiterated that if voted to power, the Congress party would provide 100 units of power free every month and then would gradually increase it to 200 units per month. He added that the Congress government in Uttarakhand would be the government of poor and downtrodden sections of the society. Rawat also assured that the Congress government would provide Rs 200 every month to women of the state who at present is reeling under steep increase in the budget of her kitchen.
The idea of a Dalit CM of Uttarakhand given by Harish Rawat is targeted at the Dalit population of the state. After Rajputs and Brahmins, Dalits constitute the biggest vote bank in the state. Interestingly Rawat chose Haridwar for mooting the idea as the district has the highest population of Dalits in the state.
