The other day, Jagan Mohan Reddy unveiled a massive 206ft (125 ft-tall statue erected on an 81ft podium) Ambedkar Statue in Vijayawada. The program was supposed to be official but did not even have the Governor in attendance.
The officials and the Ministers even forgot about Ambedkar and made the program like a YSR Congress campaign event. The entire venue is draped in YSR Congress Colours and Political Slogans about Jagan as if he is a bigger reformist than the Father of the Indian Constitution himself.
And then, the Ministers spoke very little about Ambedkar and were only praising Jagan Mohan Reddy as a Messiah.
It looks like the YSR Congress believes this statue of Ambedkar will bring votes of Dalits en masse to the party in the coming elections.
This daydream looks very similar to that of KCR’s.
In Hyderabad, KCR unveiled a 125-foot Ambedkar statue near Tank Bund just before the elections. The motive is the same – attracting SC voters. But then, the Dalits voted en masse to Congress in the election.
Congress party won fourteen out of the nineteen seats reserved for the Scheduled Castes in the state.
Jagan’s tally should be similar or worse because his Government is worse regarding spending money towards SC welfare. All the funds under SC Sub-plan which were supposed to be spent only for that population were diverted to freebies.
The spending towards SCs in the regular schemes was shown towards their expenditure while funds meant exclusively for them were diverted.
Also, Sharmila is heading the Congress which will also dent the SC vote bank of YSR Congress this time.
