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SC leaders seek RS seat from Sonia Gandhi

Scheduled Caste leaders of the Congress party in Rajasthan recently met party president Sonia Gandhi to demand one of the three seats falling vacant in the Rajya Sabha from the desert state.

Rajasthan has a total 10 members in the Rajya Sabha, and out of them three are completing their six-year term in April 2000.

According to these leaders, the Scheduled Castes were last allotted a seat in 1994 while the Scheduled Tribes got representation in 1992-98 and the minority community in 1998. ''Therefore it is the turn of Scheduled Castes'' in the coming Rajya Sabha elections.

Currently, there are 30 Congress Scheduled Caste MLAs out of a total of 33 reserved seats for them.

About 22 Scheduled Caste MLAs have recently written to Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, urging him for one seat. The leaders later met Gandhi and pleaded that there is a ''political need and sagacity'' to allot one seat for sending a proper message to these communities in the present political scenario.

Though there is no reservation of seats for any community in the Upper House, members have been elected in the past from minority, SC/ST and general category to give them fair representation. The SC leaders in Rajasthan have not been given a fair representation, these leaders said during their meetings with senior Congress leaders in Jaipur.

There have been only five members from the Scheduled Castes -- Jagannath Pahadia who had two terms and Shanti Pahadia with one term, and two others -- in the last 48 years, they pointed out.

They referred the case of Meira Kumar's resignation from the party and said attempts be made to retain the caste with the organisation amid repeated attempts by the BSP and BJP to make inroads among the scheduled castes.

UNI

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