Reservation has become a disfigured word: BJP

Thiruvananthapuram: Dalit people are the most marginalised and untouchable sections and their economic uplift and educational empowerment should get priority, a senior BJP leader said on Wednesday.

BJP`s aim is all-round development of scheduled caste people, who constitute 18 per cent of the population, national president of scheduled caste wing of BJP Sanjay Paswan said at a press conference here. "People belonging to the marginalised sections are aggressively joining our party and we are trying to address their issues," Paswan said. He said the four sections of marginalised classes--the SCs, tribals, Other Backward Classes and Minorities-- were competing among each other for their rights. "But the scheduled caste people are the most marginalisedlot in the country," he said. Paswan said around 50 per cent of scheduled caste families were now being deprived of any single benefit of reservation and `reservation` had become a disfigured word. "If the BJP comes to power, we will ensure that every single SC family gets the benefits due to them," he said. The BJP would leave no stone unturned to develop the lives of scheduled castes people. The funds under various schemes meant for them were not reaching them across the country, he said. Paswan is here to attend a conference of SC communitiesat Alappuzha under the banner of BJP tomorrow. BJP state president V Muraleedharan was also present at the press conference.