Dalits first: KCR readying a team to reach out to all

Hyderabad: Starting from Huzurabad bypoll to next general election, the state government wants to accord high priority in empowering Dalits in the State.

Normally elections are fought on several issues but this time, if TRS succeeds in retaining Huzurabad assembly seat, the prime issue till next elections will be welfare of Dalits in a phased manner. The single point agenda this time for the TRS is to win over the Dalits in the constituency and defeat the BJP on whose ticket former minister Eatala Rajender is contesting.

Even before the notification has been issued, a lot of high drama is taking place in the constituency. Since TRS has set Dalit agenda for the bypolls, the BJP too is working out strategies to woo this segment of the voters. On Thursday, BJP organised 'Palabhishekam', where the feet of Eatala was washed with milk by a group of Dalits. Reciprocating this gesture, Eatala washed their feet with milk.

The TRS, which does not want to leave any stone unturned, has now decided to constitute a team of senior Dalit leaders and intellectuals who would play a pivotal role in roping in the support of all Dalit communities. This team will continue its task till the next general elections.

This strategy is being worked out by Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao in the backdrop of reports that apart from BJP and Congress who were also preparing action plan to woo this section of voters as they are sizeable in number, and with reports that the former IPS officer R S Praveen Kumar is also likely to jump into the fray on BSP ticket, KCR has decided to be ahead of all of them in trying to attract this section of the voters.

Top leaders in the party told The Hans India that "all the parties were eying around 45,000 Dalit voters in Huzurabad which has a total of 2.26 lakh votes. The pink party has already announced a slew of measures to enlist the support of Dalits and the Chief Minister held a few meetings with the Dalit leaders. The meeting decided that a Dalit team should be constituted which will closely monitor the implementation of the schemes and advise the government on any shortcomings.

It is learnt that the proposed Dalit team will have leaders like Koppula Eshwar, K Srihari, T Rajaiah, State Chiarman to Cultural department and MLA R Balkishan.