Secretary of the State BJP unit Sanjay Joshi, who was the main speaker on the occasion, exhorted SC and ST leaders to work for the party during the forthcoming Parliamentary polls which had ushered in `unprecedented uplift for the havenots in the country and State', he said.

Joshi told Express Newsline that the party had decided to field its own candidates in all the constituencies in the State, and hoped to win all of them. Among other prominent leaders were Ishwar Makwana (Mehsana), Manhar Jhala (Jamnagar) and Mahendra Parmar, Chairman, Gujarat Safai Kamdar Vikas Board, who also spoke on the occasion. About 40 Morcha members who represented different districts of the State also resolved to floor the Congress in the polls and back the BJP.

Parmar said there were about 50,000 voters belonging to the sweeper caste in the State who fully backed the BJP after it carried out several concrete programmes for them. Announcing that the four major cities of Gujarat -- Ahmedabad, Surat, Vadodara and Rajkot -- would also soon hold State-level conventions of SC/ST members, he highlighted various actions the BJP undertook for the welfare of the poor.