In Yashpal Arya’s exit, Congress eyes Dalit leadership gains

Party in Uttarakhand now aims to nurture the promising Dalit faces within the party.

With the exit of senior leader Yashpal Arya, the Congress’ star Dalit face, the party is now left with one prominent Dalit leader in poll-bound Uttarakhand.

Pradeep Tamta is now the most prominent Dalit face of Congress in Uttarakhand. (HT File Photo)

After Arya switched allegiance to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday, the Congress’ only major Dalit leader is Rajya Sabha member Pradeep Tamta. On the other hand, Union minister Ajay Tamta, apart from newly-inducted Arya are holding the fort for the BJP.

Scheduled castes comprise over 18% of the hill state’s population and are likely to play a decisive role in assembly elections as the Congress’ vote share (33.79%) was just neck-to-neck to that of the BJP’s (33.13%) in 2012 assembly polls. Scheduled castes population is by and large uniformly distributed across all the 13 districts in terms of percentage.

Pradeep Tamta, however, told HT that Arya’s loss would not affect the party much and would only help “nurture new Dalit leadership” within the Congress. “Crisis always gives birth to new leadership. We already have some young, promising Dalit faces, including our sitting MLAs, and I’m sure they will in rise in prominence over the time to come,” Tamta said, adding the Congress was committed to the Dalits’ welfare.

Tamta also alleged Arya of failing to serve the cause of the scheduled castes. “He didn’t do much for the cause of the weaker section and even went on to oppose other Dalit leaders’ elevation within the party. It is sad that he decided to join BJP under whose rule at the Centre atrocities on Dalits and minorities are being perpetrated across the country,” he said.