Miffed with the lack of credit given to the Congress party’s contribution to provide representation and empower marginalised communities, the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (TNCC) is planning a campaign titled ‘Dalit Sangamam’ to drive home the point that the Congress party has a rich history accommodating and nurturing Dalits in leadership positions and has grand plans to do so in future as well.
The reason for this campaign, party sources say, is that the party has lost touch with the State’s Dalit population who seem to have moved away despite the party boasting tall Dalit leaders, such as former Home Minister and former TNCC president P. Kakkan in key ministerial and party positions.
TNCC SC head M.P. Ranjan Kumar, who was in New Delhi recently, where senior AICC leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, party president Mallikarjun Kharge and organisational secretary K.C. Venugopal, held a meeting with TNCC leaders to discuss about the party’s strategies for the upcoming Lok Sabha election in 2024, said he had discussed the idea with Mr. Gandhi.
Mr. Ranjan Kumar said he had invited Mr. Gandhi to take part in ‘Dalit Sangamam’, which would feature current and former MPs, MLAs, Mayors, panchayat presidents, current and former office-bearers of the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee, District Congress Committee and block Congress committees, and all other frontals and departments of the party.
In a letter written to Mr. Gandhi, Mr. Ranjan Kumar said it was extremely sad to see that despite undertaking so much work for the Dalit community across India and giving representation to countless members, the current generation does not realise the Congress’ contribution to secure their rights, ensure their development and its efforts to bring them on a par with other communities and groups.
“In Tamil Nadu, out of 18 MLAs, only two belong to Dalit community, but still the Congress party has given one of them the opportunity to be the CLP,” he said. Mr. Ranjan Kumar said the SC department had already reached out to the Dalit office-bearers across the party for an event that will be organised in Chennai.
