By IANS,
Raipur : Leaders of about one million voters from the Sindhi community of Chhattisgarh’s 15 million voters have appealed to them to boycott both the main parties, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the opposition Congress in the forthcoming elections to the 90-member state assembly, since neither has fielded any Sindhi candidate.
The polls will be held in two phases Nov 14 and 20.
The decision to stay away from the state’s two main parties was taken at a meeting by Sindhu Samaj seniors here Wednesday in protest against failure of both the parties to field even a single candidate from the Samaj.
“This is the first time since 1980 that BJP failed to pick up a Sindhi candidate in the region even when it was part of the undivided Madhya Pradesh though we always backed the party,” Subhash Bajaj, a prominent Samaj leader, told IANS.
He added: “Even the Congress ditched the Sindhi community.”
“The Samaj leaders across the state have unanimously decided to appeal to the Sindhi people not to vote for the BJP or the Congress in their segments and strongly support another candidate who is in a position to defeat nomines of these two parties.”
Sindhi voters are in a ‘deciding position’ in 10 of the 90 seats, including Raipur city (West), where industries minister Rajesh Munat is the BJP nominee.