BIJAPUR: Congress workers, mostly members of the party's Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe cell, staged a dharna in front of the District Congress Committee office here on Tuesday demanding that a Dalit be made president of the zilla panchayat.

The protestors were led by chief of the district unit head of the cell M.R. Ontimani, Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) member C.T. Kodabagi, and president of the district unit of the Youth Congress Jyothiram Pawar.

The protestors urged the party's State leaders to forward the resignation letter filed by zilla panchayat president Arjun Rathod to the authorities, and make way for the elevation of a Dalit to the post.

They said that when the party leaders had selected Mr. Rathod, who is a Lamani by caste, for the post in January 2006, they had promised to install a Dalit as president after 10 months. According to the unofficial understanding, Mr. Rathod should have made way for Ambuja Javanar, who represented the Tikota segment last December, to take up the post. Ms. Javanar is the only Dalit Congress member here. However, Mr. Rathod had continued to hold office.

Raw deal

The protestors said that while Dalits had long been supporters of the Congress, they were regularly given a raw deal when it came to appointments to positions of power. In the previous zilla panchayat too they had been denied posts. The protestors regretted that non-untouchables listed in the Scheduled Caste category were cornering most of the benefits meant for those who were once considered untouchables.

Meanwhile, District Congress Committee president Sharanappa Sungar told The Hindu that the party leadership had not taken any decision on whether or not to remove Mr. Rathod, although the latter had handed over his resignation letter long ago.

However, party sources said that the party leadership might not replace Mr. Rathod, as an overwhelming majority of Congress members favoured his continuance as president. Also, the rival group led by Shivanand Patil, Basavanabagewadi MLA, was not ready to remove its nominee, Shivanagouda Patil, from the post of vice-president.

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