Why priests of Valmiki, Ravidas temple excluded from monthly honorarium scheme, Cong. asks AAP

Congress leader Udit Raj criticizes AAP for being "anti-Dalit" and failing to fulfill promises, urging Dalit community to not vote for them.

Congress leader and former MP Udit Raj on Sunday appealed to the Dalit community not to vote for the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the Delhi Assembly election as the party is “anti-Dalit”.

Mr. Raj, a Dalit himself, said AAP had announced a scheme to provide a monthly honorarium to temple priests and gurdwara granthis but “excluded priests of Valmiki and Ravidas temples”.

Demanding “inclusion” in the scheme, the priests of these temples will protest against AAP at Jantar Mantar on January 20, he added.

“[AAP chief] Mr. Kejriwal wants the votes of the Dalits, backwards and the poor, but he is quiet on caste census. He has done maximum damage to the Dalit community by not fulfilling any of the promises made in the past 10 years,” said Mr. Raj who contested unsuccessfully from the North West Delhi constituency in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

He compalined that Mr. Kejriwal “did not filled” thousands of vacant posts in the Delhi government, which could have benefited the Dalit community, nor did he “regularised” the temporary employees, including sanitation workers, teachers and DTC staff.

“Mr. Kejriwal had promised to appoint a Dalit as the Deputy Chief Minister of Punjab but did not do so. AAP has no Dalit or backward among its 11 MPs in Rajya Sabha, and several of the Dalit leaders have quit the party,” Mr. Raj alleged.

“His [Mr. Kejriwal] love for Ambedkar’s ideology is fake. Why is he silent on the caste census? Rahul Gandhi had asked him to clear his stand. But he prefers to remain quiet,” the Congress leader alleged.