BJP's Dalit MPs, leaders to counter opposition charges

Under the opposition attack over issues concerning Dalits, RSS and BJP have asked the party's Dalit leaders to launch an aggressive campaign among the community, claiming that its "success" in winning over a section of them has prompted Congress and BSP to launch a "disinformation" campaign against it.
Dalits MPs and office-bearers of BJP, besides state presidents of the party's SC Morcha, held a meeting yesterday evening where Krishna Gopal, a senior RSS functionary who is the Hindutva organisation's pointsman for BJP, besides party general secretaries Ramlal and Bhupendra Yadav spoke to them.
The meeting assumes significance in view of the upcoming Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls as BJP has been making sustained efforts to woo Dalits, who constitute over 20 per cent of the electorate. Many believe that the recent rows have harmed its campaign.

Its Dalit MPs and other leaders are likely to fan out to areas where the community's presence is significant to defend the party over the rows following cases of attack on Dalits in many states by cow vigilantes.
"The opposition has launched a disinformation campaign against us. Congress and BSP are together as they are worried over our success in winning over Dalits. Comments of our senior leaders are being distorted. We have to counter it aggressively and effectively," party spokesperson and Dalit leader Vijay Sonkar Shastri said.
The recent comment of Prime Minister Narendra Modi that 70-80 per cent of the self-proclaimed cow protectors are anti-social elements also found a mention in the meeting.

Many leaders mentioned in the meeting that Modi had said that cow protection is good and referred to his own work but it is now being alleged that he ran down all groups working for cow welfare, sources said.