Mala Mahanadu here on Thursday announced that it has fielded 75 candidates as Independents in the Assembly elections in protest against the indiscriminate attacks on Dalits and to oppose caste discrimination in the society.
Announcing this to mediapersons here, Mala Mahanadu national president Karem Sivaji said the massacre of Dalits by upper caste people in Karemchedu, Tsundur, Laximpet and several other places in the State shook the conscience of the mankind. He also bemoaned that the upper caste political parties have been using Dalits as mere vote bank since the dawn of independence. The sub-human condition of the Dalits remained unchanged as the segregated Dalit colonies are deprived of protected drinking water, drainage, roads, toilets, pucca houses, power supply, health and education facilities, he bemoaned.
` Sivaji alleged that successive governments since independence were playing with the lives of unemployed Dalit students and youths by not filling backlog posts and the SC Finance Corporation, which was set up to help Dalit youths turned dysfunctional due to lack of budget. He also alleged that successive governments were willfully neglecting SC, ST cases by not appointing chairman and members for the SC, ST Commission.
Stating that Mala Mahanadu has fielded 75 candidates in the Assembly election fray in the Seemandhra region with the slogan of “Maa Votu Maake” (our votes for ourselves), Sivaji appealed to all Malas to exercise their franchise in favour of Mala Mahanadu Independent candidates so that “we can change our pathetic fate ourselves with the legislative power. He also appealed to the Mala Mahanadu activists to immediately lodge complaints with the Election Commission if the bourgeois parties try to woo Dalits with money and liquor.
Mala Mahanadu national vice-president T Kasanna, Telangana Mala Mahanadu honorary president N. Mallesh, working president S Vijayababu, Hyderabad district unit president G. Yadagiri Rao and others were present at the media conference. (NSS)
