New Delhi: The new Dalit leader and Gujarat MLA JigneshMevani called upon Dalits to defeat the BharatiyaJanata Party (BJP) in Karnataka as Union Minister Anant Kumar Hegde had targeted the Dalit community and referred to its members as "dogs".

In a release, which Mevani has also tweeted, he said, "I call upon the Dalits and other oppressed communities to defeat the BJP, that views Dalits as dogs, in the upcoming election in Karnataka."

Mevani referred his call to defeat the BJP by citing the minister's recent statement against Dalit activists who were staging a protest against his statements in Ballari district by calling them "barking stray dogs".

"This shows the brahmanical and evil mindset of the SanghParivar and its functionaries from top to bottom, which has no place for Dalits," he said.

Mevani condemned the "vitriolic" statements made by Hegde in various public programmes held across Karnataka targeting the Indian Constitution, secularists, writers, Dalits and other oppressed communities.

He referred to the "barking dogs" remark as a clearly painful assault on the dignity and self respect of the Dalits of the country.

The Gujarat MLA also said that it is an offence under the atrocities act and hence, an FIR must be filed against him and that he be arrested at the earliest.

"However, this is not the first time that the minister has made the manuvadi agenda of the BJP clear," Mevani said, adding that Hegde, during a public function in Karnataka's Koppal, had said the very purpose of the BJP coming to power is to change the Constitution of India.

Mevani also targetted the Pejavar seer of Udupi Mutt, which he claimed, openly practices caste discrimination among its devotees and had expressed a similar opinion in the Dharma Sansad.

"The agenda of the Manuvadi-corporatist BJP is very clear. What they are striving to do is to bring amendments to the Constitution not to make it more egalitarian, but to replace it with the Brahminical social and political order. Ananth Kumar Hegde's statement reflects the real objective of BJP and SanghPariwar," he said.