Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday dubbed the opposition Congress “anti-Dalit” for not attending the meeting of the selection committee to choose the chief information commissioner.

His remarks come a day after Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury claimed that he was kept in the dark about the appointment of Heeralal Samariya as the new chief information commissioner (CIC) despite being a member of the selection panel.

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Addressing a massive rally at Sidhi district in poll-bound Madhya Pradesh, the prime minister said, “The Congress has only one job and that is to hurl abuses at Modi day and night. By this, they are abusing the other backward classes (OBC) community.”

“They hate Dalits. When we made a tribal woman the President of the country, the Congress opposed it. Now, when a Dalit has been made the CIC, they disapprove of him too. Moreover, they spread lies to gain sympathy,” he said.

Countering Chowdhurys’s claims, Modi said, “The Congress was informed well in advance, and we had a talk with them over phone. They had to come to the (selection) meeting but did not.”

“Knowing that a Dalit is going to be made the CIC, they boycotted the meeting,” he said.

He further said, “The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) respects the aspirations of Dalits, tribals and OBCs. I cancelled my election tour and reached Delhi (to attend the selection meeting).”

Modi said his government framed welfare schemes for the poor after preventing many scams in the country.

“An amount of Rs 13,000 crore is being spent on the ‘PM Vishwakarma’ scheme for traditional artisans and craftspeople. The BJP government is also developing a major solar power centre of the country in the Vindhya region of Madhya Pradesh,” he added.

Voting on 230 seats in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly polls will take place on November 17.