BSP's Ritu Singh targets Congress' Manish Tewari, accuses party of being against reservation

Chandigarh (Punjab) [India], May 31 (ANI): Bahujan Samaj Party's Chandigarh candidate Ritu Singh on Thursday came down heavily on Congress and claimed that the party is standing against the reservation of backward communities like SC and ST.
In a face-to-face debate with Manish Tiwari in front of the media, Ritu Singh questioned the Congress candidate on how he would save the Constitution.
She said, "How the Constitution will be saved? On the poor people, you state that the reservation of SC, and Backward Class should be done on the basis of financial condition and should not be done based on caste and creed."
Manish Tewari in his reply to Singh, said, "In the Constitution, the reservation of SC and ST is ensured...As far as the question of reservation...My stand is absolutely clear. My stand is with the Indian National Congress."
After listening to Tewari's reply, Ritu Singh slammed him and said, "In simple terms, I would say that although Congress is talking about saving the Constitution, in reality, they are working against the Constitution...Only reservation were left for the poor, through which they could be uplifted... But now, it is clear that the Congress' stand is anti-reservation. Congress is against Dalits and Backward Community."
Ritu Singh also called the INDIA alliance as 'thugbandhan' and said, "In Chandigarh, I don't know whether it is 'Gathbandhan' or 'Thugbandhan'? In Punjab, you say that we (Congress and AAP) are together, we have done so much good work and hence vote for us but in Chandigarh, the AAP party counts its work and Congress counts its own."
The BSP candidate also alleged that the BJP and Congress have not done anything for the poor in Chandigarh. "They (BJP and Congress) have never worked for the bastis of Chandigarh...The dumping zone was not done only by BJP but Congress also. 'BJP aur Congress ek hi thali ke chatte batte hai.' Both parties didn't do anything for the poor."
The Chandigarh constituency has been represented many times by both the BJP and the Congress.
Congress and BJP have dropped two familiar faces this time. While Congress dropped former Union minister Pawan Kumar Bansal, who was the party's Chandigarh candidate in the past four elections, the BJP dropped sitting MP Kirron Kher, who has represented the seat twice.
In the 2019 election, BJP's Kirron Kher won the seat for the second consecutive time by defeating Congress candidate Pawan Bansal by 46,970 votes.
Kirron Kher received 2,31,188 votes and Pawan Bansal got 1,84,218. In that election, the constituency saw a voter turnout of 70.62 per cent.
Chandigarh goes to the polls on June 1 in the 7th and last phase of the ongoing Lok Sabha election. (ANI)