Assembly Elections 2023: Ahead of the Assembly elections in Rajasthan, Congress MLA Girraj Malinga joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in Jaipur on Sunday in the presence of Union Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat. He was an MLA from the Bari constituency. This came hours before the Congress released its seventh list of 21 candidates for the upcoming Rajasthan assembly polls and denied ticket to Malinga and fielded Prashant Singh Parmar from Bari in Dholpur district.
After Malinga joined the saffron party, several Dalit organisations attacked the BJP for welcoming Malinga into the party fold, saying the saffron party has proved that its slogan against Dalit atrocities in Rajasthan is just an "election gimmick," as reported by the news agency PTI.
Last year, Malinga allegedly assaulted two engineers of the Electricity Department, one of whom is a Dalit. The engineer, who belongs to the Dalit community, is still undergoing treatment at the SMS Hospital in Jaipur.
Following the incident, a case was registered against Malinga and others in March last year. Malinga was arrested after he surrendered before the police commissioner in Jaipur, PTI reported.
After joining the BJP, Malinga claimed he was being harassed in the Congress and a false case was registered against him due to Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot's "pressure politics".
"In the engineers' assault case, an FIR was lodged and I was made an accused. There was politics in that too. When I demanded that the investigating officer be changed, the chief minister did not listen to me despite the fact that I was a Congress MLA," he said, as quoted by PTI. "I have joined the BJP today after seeing the policies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and with a desire to work with the BJP's ideology," he said.
Malinga also stated that he switched parties because the Congress was targeting leaders one by one, as reported by the news agency ANI. He said that the Congress leadership had not even inquired about the reasons for his departure. Reacting to Malinga joining the BJP, various Dalit organisations issued a joint statement, dubbing the BJP as an "anti-Dalit" party.
"The BJP has proved that it is an anti-Dalit party and is merely using Dalit issues for electoral gains while welcoming individuals linked to atrocities against Dalits (into the party fold)," said Bhanwar Meghwansi, a Dalit activist, as quoted by PTI.
Coordinator of Scheduled Caste Rights Campaign, Satyaveer Singh said, "By bringing Bari MLA Girraj Singh Malinga, who is accused of committing atrocities against Dalits, in the BJP, it has been proved that the BJP's slogan against Dalit atrocities in Rajasthan was just an election gimmick," as quoted by PTI.
"If we study the increasing Dalit atrocities in the state, it will become clear that among the accused, the supporters of the ideology of BJP, RSS are playing a leading role in Dalit atrocities," the statement said. In such a situation, the BJP cannot claim to be a Dalit-friendly party, it said.
The Assembly polls in the five states will be held between November 7 and November 30. Mizoram will go to polls on November 7, Madhya Pradesh on November 17, Rajasthan on November 25, and Telangana on November 30 while Chhattisgarh will vote in two phases on November 7 and November 17.