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Updated June 28th, 2022 at 07:53 IST

KTR slams NDA's move to field a Tribal Presidential candidate, describes it as 'tokenism'

Telangana IT Minister KT Rama Rao on Monday dismissed NDA's decision to field former Jharkhand governor Droupadi Murmu for the Presidential election.

Reported by: Vishnu V V
KTR
Image: KTR/ FACEBOOK | Image:self
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Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) working president and Telangana IT Minister KT Rama Rao (KTR) on Monday called NDA’s move to field a tribal candidate for the Presidential election “tokenism”. KTR called out the ruling party and claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led regime has done nothing for the upliftment of the tribal community in the country. Slamming the move, the TRS leader claimed that the party had “no choice but to support Yashwant Sinha” in the upcoming polls.

The TRS had earlier joined in supporting Opposition candidate Yashwant Sinha in order to oust NDA from power. Following this, KTR visited the national capital to extend support to Sinha, who filed his nomination papers in the Parliament House on Monday. During the visit, the Telangana minister took cognisance of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance’s (NDA) move to field tribal leader and former Jharkhand governor Droupadi Murmu as its candidate for the Presidential poll and said that the party was using it as a “token” instead of actually uplifting the community.

“We don’t believe in tokenism. It is not about Murmu’s candidature. She represents a party that is heavily reliant on unconstitutional practices. Therefore, we are vehemently opposing the BJP candidate,” Rama Rao said. Further alleging that the Modi government has been abusing all constitutional offices, he said that “someone has to raise a voice against this.” He went on to slam the NDA government over the President status of Ram Nath Kovind too.

“Even the plight of Dalits has not changed much after Ram Nath Kovind, a member of the community, became the President,” KTR added. He went on to claim that the BJP regime failed to do any welfare for the tribal community in the last eight years, and said that the government ignored the community in several issues. He also alleged that the Centre failed to move forward with its promise of building a tribal university for Telangana as part of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act.

Furthermore, he added that the Telangana government had requested the Centre to increase the reservation for tribal people in the state due to the increase in their population. “A resolution was passed in the assembly four years back but the Centre has not accepted this request,” he added. “We don’t believe in tokenism. We don’t have any choice but to support Yashwant Sinhaji who has been supported by all Opposition parties. We are hopeful that he will be elected with (the support of) a lot of like-minded voters,” he reiterated while stating that the NDA government failed to support Tribal welfare. 

Presidential election 2022

As the term of President Ram Nath Kovind is ending on July 24, an election to fill this impending vacancy will be held on July 18. The President will be elected by the Electoral College consisting of elected members of both Houses of Parliament and the Legislative Assemblies through a secret ballot. However, the nominated MPs and MLCs of various states are not eligible to participate in this election. The total value of the votes of electors is 10,86,431. While the last date for filing nomination papers is June 29, the counting of votes shall take place on July 21.

(With PTI inputs)

Image: KTR/ FACEBOOK

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Published June 28th, 2022 at 07:53 IST

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