Jaipur: After Congress fielded Brahmin leader and former Speaker C.P. Joshi from the Bhilwara parliamentary seat in Rajasthan, the community has demanded greater role roles for their community leader in the party’s hierarchical set-up.
Congress in Rajasthan had to face the ire of the Brahmin community after the grand old party denied ticket to the community for the upcoming Lok Sabha election.
Congress Brahim leader Varun Purohit expressed satisfaction over the decision to field Joshi.
“The community wanted the party to field at least one candidate for the upcoming elections. There are 15 per cent Brahmin votes which were being neglected by not fielding any candidate from our community,” he added.
He said that the community is also aggrieved over the neglect shown by the party and not taking the leaders from the community into the decision-making roles.
He told IANS that prominent ex-MPs and former MLAs from different states had a meeting in Delhi to build up pressure on the Congress high command to bring back Brahmins in the party organisation.
“Bringing Brahims back to the party organisation is necessary for the revival of the Congress,” Purohit said.
He said that the community would wait for the response of the party’s high command in the coming days.
“Brahmins are not happy with several decisions of the top leadership. They are also not convinced by the demand for the caste census pitched by Rahul Gandhi. The census should be held for society as a whole and not for a cross-section. Congress should not deviate from its ideology of social welfare,” he added.
The Brahmin community was left anguished when none of the Brahmin leaders was fielded from any Lok Sabha constituency in Rajasthan.
Sunil Sharma was the only Brahmin who was given a ticket from the Jaipur seat however he returned the ticket after a controversy emerged over his connection with pro-RSS organisation, Jaipur Dialogues.
Congress then fielded former state minister Pratap Singh Khariyawas from Jaipur.
Former Chief Minister’s Officer on Special Duty (OSD) Lokesh Sharma wrote on social media, expressing his resentment, on the issue.
“It should be revealed who is giving advice and who is advocating the party so we can know who are the people behind the preparation to cause huge loss to Congress in the state. Those who did not want to contest elections were given tickets. Congress was left without Brahmin representation for the first time in the political history of the state. It is not the fault of the central leadership and the high command because decisions would have been taken as per the brief given by the local leaders without knowing the ground reality and without the correct facts,” he wrote.
Congress Spokesperson Swarnim Chaturvedi said that Congress respects the Brahmin community and Congress is the only party which has given four Brahmin Chief Ministers to Rajasthan.
“The party had given a ticket to Sunil Sharma this time too from the Jaipur seat however he offered to return it due to controversy and hence the party had to change its candidate. Now Congress has fielded senior party leader CP Joshi from Bhilwara which shows the party has huge respect for the Brahmin community,” he added.
