Ensure defeat of ‘chaddidharis': Jignesh Mevani calls for anti-BJP alliance in Karnataka

BENGALURU: Gujarat Dalit leader and newly elected lawmaker Jignesh Mevani on Tuesday said that he will campaign in Karnataka, which will go to polls this year.

According to IANS, Mevani will campaign along with the 'like-minded' parties against the BJP in April.

''In April, I'll be in Karnataka for two weeks. I will urge 20% of Dalits in the state that not even their 20 votes should go to them (BJP),'' Mevani said while speaking at an event held to commemorate the 55th birth anniversary of slain journalist Gauri Lankesh.

During his speech, the Gujarat Dalit icon said that all mainstream political parties from Karnataka should form an alliance to defeat the BJP. 

''An alliance of all mainstream political parties and concrete people’s alliance should come together to defeat ‘chaddidharis’ in the state,'' Mevani said in Bengaluru.

In April, I'll be in K'taka for 2 weeks,will tell 20% Dalits in the state that not even their 20 votes should go to them (BJP).An alliance of all mainstream political parties&concrete people’s alliance should come together to defeat ‘chaddidharis’ in the state: J Mevani in B'luru pic.twitter.com/4ibANmviLF — ANI (@ANI) January 30, 2018

Mevani also urged the voters in Karnataka not to vote for the BJP in coming Assembly elections in the Congress-ruled southern state.

"I will speak to the Dalits (in Karnataka) and tell them their vote shouldn't go to the BJP," he said.

"I'm ready to compromise with my ideologies to save our Constitution and to keep the BJP from winning the Karnataka elections," the Vadgam MLA added.

He claimed the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi had not kept their promises of providing two crore jobs every year, made ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

"The government hasn't paid much attention to jobs or farmer suicides but only focused on issues like love jihad," he said.

The assembly elections are likely to be held in April-May in Karnataka.

The elections to the current 224-member Karnataka Assembly were held in May 2013.

Led by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Congress is currently in power in Karnataka.  

The Gujarat legislator had recently urged Radhika Vemula – the mother of Rohith Vemula who allegedly committed suicide at the Hyderabad University in 2016 - to contest the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and teach BJP leader and Union Minister Smriti Irani a lesson.

Mevani also called the death of Rohith "an institutional murder".

Rohith Vemula, a 28-year-old Dalit research scholar at the University of Hyderabad, was found hanging in his friend's hostel room on January 17, 2016.

Alleging caste discrimination, his friends and family claimed that the varsity had stopped paying a fellowship of Rs 25,000 which forced him to take the drastic step.

(With Agency inputs )