Union Minister and BJP ally Chirag Paswan on Tuesday criticized the Congress for what he termed as the party’s use of the “Dalit card” in the election for Lok Sabha Speaker. He asserted that the opposition employs this strategy whenever they foresee a certain defeat.
In a post in Hindi on X, the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) leader highlighted instances from the past to support his claim. He noted that in the 2002 vice-presidential election, the Congress-led opposition, anticipating a loss, fielded Dalit leader Sushil Kumar Shinde. Similarly, in the 2017 presidential election, when the numbers were in favor of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) candidate Ram Nath Kovind, the Congress nominated Meira Kumar, another leader from a Dalit community. Kovind went on to win the election.
Paswan further pointed out that the Congress has now nominated Dalit leader K Suresh for the Lok Sabha Speaker’s election, despite lacking the numbers to win. “Are Dalit leaders only symbolic candidates for the opposition?” Paswan questioned in his post.
