Giving power to Dalits within the party fold is more important than trying to reconnect with the community, state leaders have told Rahul Gandhi, who is keen to regain the confidence of the Congress' traditional vote bank.

Over the past decades, Dalits had drifted away from the Congress because the community found little space within the organisation with hardly any projection of its leadership in states.

On agenda

Jolted after the debacle of 2014 national elections, in which the Congress was reduced to a mere 44 seats in the Lok Sabha, its lowest ever tally, Rahul has been trying to regain the confidence of Dalits. But a lot more needs to be done, if the issue is to be addressed.

"The SC leaders acknowledge the platform provided by the Congress to project their opinions but they feel that more needs to be done. More efforts need to be put into the strengthening of the Dalits' position within the party," K Raju, in charge of AICC's SC cell told Mail Today.

According to Raju, the SC leaders from states want concentrated efforts from within the party to promote Dalit leadership by giving them equal opportunities and adequate power.

A few months ago, the Congress decided to expand the minimum representation of SC/ST/OBC/minorities in the party constitution from 20 per cent to 40 per cent.

However, the provisions now need implementation, claim sources.

Highlighting the need for the Congress to spell out its stand vis a vis the Dalits for the years to come, sources said the feedback obtained from the state leaders will be debated thoroughly at a special session to articulate the party's policy on the issue.

Sources said Rahul's visits in the past to Haryana, where two Dalit children were burnt alive and recently to the Hyderabad University, where a dalit scholar Rohith Vemula ended his life, are clear attempts to be seen as the champion of the marginalised community.

Rahul also highlighted the two issues in Parliament in an attempt to paint the ruling BJP as anti-Dalit. Sources said the Congress needs to present its pro-poor credentials with greater force amid attempts by the ruling BJP to woo Dalits. "It shall be our endeavour to expose their anti-Dalit approach," said Raju.

Keeping up with his plan, Rahul had made Dalit leader Ashok Tanwar the chief of Haryana Congress. Incidentally, the Dalits had deserted the Congress in the Assembly polls last year in the state. In Delhi too, the Dalit votes had shifted to AAP, leaving the Congress with zero seats in the Assembly. Earlier, in UP, Rahul had worked hard to wean away the Dalit votes from BSP supremo Mayawati ahead of the 2012 Assembly polls, but his efforts went in vain. The focus once again has shifted to UP, which will go to polls in 2017.

In Punjab, which has the highest population of Dalits in the country and will go to polls next year along with UP, Rahul is trying to give prominent roles to Dalit leaders in an attempt to counter the BSP, which plans to contest all the 117 Assembly seats.

The concerns are the same in Rajasthan, where the Congress had performed poorly, both in national and Assembly polls.

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