Mysore/Mysuru: Maintaining that BJP is against reservation for backward classes and other oppressed sections and is also opposed to decentralisation of power, opposition leader and former Chief Minister Siddharamaiah contended that it was Rajiv Gandhi who empowered democracy by giving more authority to local bodies. He was speaking at the programme organised by Kaginele Kanaka Gurupeetha Shakha Mutt, Mysuru, for felicitating Gram Panchayat heads and members at Kanaka Samudaya Bhavan in Siddharthanagar here yesterday.
Pointing out that the Panchayat Raj system was introduced with an objective of strengthening the federal structure of the country through decentralisation of power, Siddharamaiah said that now the BJP headed Government at the Centre was working against this objective. Accusing the BJP of opposing reservation for backward classes and women and reservation of Gram Panchayat President and Vice-President posts in the Gram Panchayat system, he asserted that the BJP never advocated reservation.
