MOBILISING SUPPORT: H.N. Ananth Kumar and Katta Subramanya Naidu, BJP leaders, arrive at a meeting of the party's Backward Classes Forum in Bangalore on Monday. — Photo: K. Murali Kumar

BANGALORE: H.N. Ananth Kumar, Bharatiya Janata Party MP, on Monday accused Janata Dal (S) President H.D. Deve Gowda of misleading the people by pretending to champion the cause of the poor and the backward classes.

Addressing a meeting of the BJP's Backward Classes Forum ahead of the party's "slum dwellers' rally" planned for October 28, Mr. Kumar said the rally is not meant to counter the "Daridranarayana rally" which was organised by the Janata Dal (S) "to garner votes in the Chamarajpet Assembly byelection."

"Our rally is to project the BJP as the party that has always supported the backward classes and the poor, and to expose the Congress and the Janata Dal (S), which have done nothing despite being in power for many years," the BJP General Secretary said.

He asked why Mr. Deve Gowda, who was Chief Minister for 18 months and Prime Minister for 10 months, "did not ensure" housing and water supply for the urban poor.

He claimed that it was the BJP under the leadership of Atal Bihari Vajpayee that had the highest number of elected representatives from the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes categories.

Mr. Ananth Kumar alleged that the coalition partners are trying to issue possession certificates to slum dwellers even though Mr. Deve Gowda himself has said these have no value. The lands to which they wanted slum dwellers to be given titles are owned by private parties; they have encroached upon and are entangled in litigation, he said.

He said that when the previous government at the Centre, that of the National Democratic Alliance, launched the VAMBAY scheme (Valmiki Ambedkar Awas Yojana), and 35,000 homes were built in the State. Title deeds were registered in the women's names, he said.

Describing the Daridranarayana rally as "vote Narayana rally," Mr. Kumar said the BJP will make a commitment to ensure equity and political empowerment for the urban poor in over 4,000 slums in the State, equal share of Cauvery water supplied to Bangalore, and a house for every family.

Shivajinagar MLA and Slum Morcha President Katta Subramanya Naidu said that at the BJP's rally, leaders will demand filling of backlog vacancies in reserved categories.

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