Bengaluru, Oct 28 (DHNS): Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has accused the BJP of conspiring against him and deliberately creating a rift between the dalit and the backward class communities. He has also indirectly attacked his own party leaders for colluding with the BJP in a bid to oust him from power.

Siddaramaiah, who was supposed to inaugurate the Valmiki Jayanti celebrations at the Banquet Hall in Vidhana Soudha on Tuesday, could not be there owing to his engagements in New Delhi. His speech copy was, however, distributed to the media present at the venue.

Siddaramaiah has stated that the BJP had time and again conspired against him, and it was in fact the saffron party leaders who were raking up the issue of dalit chief minister. This, because certain leaders in both the BJP and Congress could not digest the fact that he was representing the backward classes, dalits and minorities. He wondered why the dalit chief minister theory was never floated during the BJP’s tenure.

Stating that a dalit should become not only a chief minister, but also a prime minister, he attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for not taking action against his Cabinet colleague V K Singh for his controversial remark while referring to the death of two dalit children in Faridabad.

The minorities, dalits and backward communities had always been neglected and cheated by the BJP. They had been targets of atrocities and exploitation, and that the BJP would never work towards the welfare of these communities, Siddaramaiah stated.

Minister for Social Welfare and Backward Classes H Anjaneya in his address to the gathering said that he would urge the chief minister to set up a Valmiki study chair, aside from his statue in Vidhana Soudha. Social worker and theatre exponent K Nagarathnamma was conferred with the Valmiki Maharshi award on the occasion.