Rahul urges PM Modi to confer Bharat Ratna on Kanshi Ram

New Delhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has demanded that BSP founder Kanshi Ram be conferred the Bharat Ratna. Gandhi, also the leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, wrote a letter to PM Narendra Modi in this regard on Saturday, the birth anniversary of the Dalit icon, a day after he first raised the matter at an event in Lucknow.

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The move, after his praise for the late Karpoori Thakur failed to win over voters of other backward classes in Bihar, is being seen as another attempt to reach out to Dalits in the run-up to next year's Uttar Pradesh election. "I demand that the Government of India honor the great warrior of social justice and the guiding light of Bahujan consciousness, the esteemed Shri Kanshi Ram Ji, with the Bharat Ratna. This highest national honor will be a tribute to Shri Kanshi Ram Ji and the entire movement that showed millions of Bahujans the path to rights, participation, and self-respect," Gandhi wrote on X.