MP: SC/ST, OBC outfit asks members not to vote for upper caste

SC/ST and OBC leaders speaking at a rally here Sunday asked members of their communities to not vote for candidates from upper castes in the forthcoming Madhya Pradesh Assembly polls, one of the organisers said.

The rally was organised by the Anya Pichara Varg Aivum Ansuchit Jati Aivum Janjati Sanyukt Morcha at the BHEL Dusshera Maiden here.

"Our leaders Bahadur Singh Lodhi and Mahendra Singh Patel asked the gathering at the rally not to vote for people from the upper caste as they were opposing the SC/ST Act and reservations provided to SC/STs," Vijay Shankar Shravan, spokesperson of the Ansuchit Jati, Janjati Adikari aur Karamchari Sangh (AJJAKS) told PTI.

The BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh has witnessed protests by upper caste organisations against recent amendments passed in Parliament in August in the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act restoring some of its stringent provisions pertaining to arrest.