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Uttar Pradesh’s SC/ST Commission revamped, BJP cadres get a look-in
Former BJP lawmaker and doctor from Agra, Rambabu Harit, was named chairman of the Uttar Pradesh SC/ST Commission
A day after seeking details of vacancies in the government-owned corporations and boards in Uttar Pradesh, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) began the much-in-demand process of accommodating cadres to these positions.
The Yogi Adityanath government reconstituted the state’s SC/ST commission by making 18 appointments to the body. Former BJP lawmaker and an allopathic doctor from Agra Rambabu Harit was named chairman of the SC/ST Commission.
These appointments, cleared by governor Anandiben Patel, would be for a year from the date when the nominated people take charge. Uttar Pradesh is due for assembly elections in early 2022, in about nine months’ time.
“The party has always looked after its cadres and more would be accommodated in the coming days against vacancies,” a BJP leader said, admitting that the process of accommodating old hands got a move on after party’s national general secretary (organisation) BL Santhosh’s three-day feedback session.
Mithilesh Kumar, a Dalit leader from Shahjahanpur who had contested the 2014 Lok Sabha polls on the Samajwadi Party symbol, has been appointed one of the two vice chairpersons of the commission, the other being Ram Naresh Paswan, a Dalit cadre from Sonbhadra.
“The party has picked cadres and this is welcome recognition,” said Ram Singh Valmiki, former secretary of the UP BJP’s SC/ST cell who has been named member of the SC/ST commission. Valmiki had been a regular feature of “samarasta bhoj” (social harmony lunches) organised by the BJP and RSS to build bridges between upper castes and Dalits.
For Valmiki, along with Ramesh Toofani (another old party hand who figures on the list of cadres from Lucknow), this is their first appointment to the SC/ST commission. For few others like sadhvi Gita Pradhan from the Samajwadi Party bastion of Sambhal and Om Prakash Nayak from Aligarh, this is their second term as members of the SC/ST commission.
“Our term has been renewed for a year and I am thankful to the party,” said Nayak, a former state chief of state BJP’s Dalit wing who enjoyed the status of minister of state during defence minister Rajnath Singh’s stint as UP chief minister.
Other members, mostly old party hands, include Kamlesh Pasi from Varanasi, Sheshnath Acharya from Ballia, Teeja Ram from Azamgarh, Anita Siddharth from Jaunpur, Ram Asrey Diwakar from Farrukhabad, Shyam Aheria from Mathura, Manoj Sonkar from Varanasi, Shravan Gond and Amresh Chandra Chero from Sonbhadra, Kishan Lal Sudarshan from Kanpur and KK Raj from Etawah.
