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DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
Table 14
Scheduled Castes Seats won by the Congress
| Provinces | On Contest | Without Contest | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| United Provinces … … Madras … … … … Bengal … … … … Central Provinces … … Bombay … … … … Bihar … … … … Punjab … … … … Assam … … … … Orissa … … … … Total … … | 14 24 6 6 3 4 Nil 3 4 64 | 2 2 Nil 1 1 7 Nil 1 Nil 14 | 16 26 6 7 4 11 Nil 4 4 78 |
Table 13 shows what keen interest the Untouchables have taken in the election to the seats reserved for them. Out of 151 as many as 121 were contested. This disproves the allegation that used to be made that it was no use giving political rights to the Untouchables as they had neither political education nor political consciousness. Table 14 shows that the Untouchables far from looking upon the Congress as their friend and ally have regarded it as their political enemy No. 1. They have very seldom allowed the entry of the Congress in the election to the seat reserved for the Untouchables to go unchallenged. In most of the cases where the Congress had put up an Untouchable candidate on the Congress ticket for a seat reserved for the Untouchables, the Untouchables did not meekly surrender the seat to the Congress but came forward to contest the election by putting up their own candidate on a Non-Congress ticket. Out of the 78 candidates put up by the Congress for the Scheduled Castes seats as many as
64 were contested.