Lingsugur (Raichur dist), DHNS: State BJP president B S Yeddyurappa on Sunday promised that members of the Valmiki community would be given 7.5% reservation if the BJP came to power after the next Assembly elections.

He said that the quota would be provided within the framework of the Constitution.

The former chief minister was speaking after inaugurating the Maharshi Valmiki convention organised by the state ST morcha of the BJP.

Yeddyurappa announced that a separate commission would be formed to study

the conditions of the scheduled tribes (STs) in the state, if the party was elected to power.

He criticised the Congress government in the state for not taking pro-people measures. Probity and development had taken a backseat in the present dispensation, the former chief minister said.

Muralidhar Rao, the incharge of the party affairs in the state, said that the BJP should be brought to power in the next Assembly elections, if the development works undertaken by the central government had to reach every village in the state. K S Eshwarappa, leader of the Opposition in the Council, said that the Congress government had cheated the dalits, backward classes and the minorities, after coming to power in their name.

Jagadish Shettar, leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, said that the Siddaramaiah government was on its way out. Former deputy chief minister R Ashoka charged Siddaramaiah with allowing his ministers to loot the exchequer. MLA C T Ravi opposed the government’s move to celebrate Tipu Jayanti. A huge procession was taken out on the streets of the town prior to the convention.