Politics

JK BJP ‘anti-Dalit’, I was victimized for being one, says expelled BJP leader

Srinagar: Days after the BJP’s Jammu and Kashmir unit expelled ex-MLA Gagan Bhagat, he accused the saffron party of being ‘anti-Dalit’ and alleged he was victimised for being one.

He claimed that the party’s debacle in the recently concluded assembly elections in five states was a result of its “anti-Dalit” ideology.

Going against the party line, Bhagat had on December 3 moved the Supreme Court challenging the dissolution of state assembly. The apex court, however, dismissed his petition on Monday, saying there was no merit in the pleas filed by the former legislator.

He was expelled by the BJP on the same day with immediate effect for his “continued indiscipline, anti-party and anti-Jammu activities.”

The petition has embarrassed the BJP, which has supported the Governor’s decision. BJP’s state president Ravinder Raina had termed Bhagat’s petition “his individual decision”.

However, Bhagat’s expulsion by the state BJP chief Ravinder Raina has occurred in connection to an earlier complaint of “immorality” against him after his obscene pictures with a woman became viral on the social media earlier this year. Bhagat, stated that the pictures were morphed.

“I am a Dalit and faced victimisation from the party which is 100 per cent anti-Dalit…I was always given the position where my caste fits,” Bhagat told reporters.

“I have always faced discrimination because of the anti-Dalit attitude of the party leadership. Scheduled Castes gave seven reserved seats to the party in the state but it gave no representation to the community in the previous government. No ministerial berth was given (to community members) nor any higher position in the party,” he alleged.

He added that whenever someone highlights the truth, he is dubbed anti-party.

 

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