"I.N.D.I.A bloc will start filling 30 lakh vacant govt posts by 15 August": Rahul Gandhi

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday, 9 May, promised that if the INDIA bloc is elected, the new government will start filling up 30 lakh posts by 15 August.

Meanwhile, the current government, he alleged, had given several infrastructure projects such as ports, airports and defence contracts to the Adani group in the past 10 years, while the country's youth and the government vacancies both languished.

At a poll rally in Telangana, the Wayanad MP made the allegation about the contracts given to Adani just a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked why Rahul Gandhi was no longer mentioning the names Adani and Ambani in his speeches.

Hitting out at Modi at the election rally in Medak Lok Sabha constituency, Gandhi alleged that Modi wants all of India's policies to benefit 22-25 people.

"Narendra Modi-ji worked for people like Adani. For 10 years, Narendra Modi-ji gave the country's airports, ports, infrastructure, defence industry and all to Adani," he said.

He alleged that Modi left crores of youth unemployed even as he implemented a "note ban (demonetisation) and faulty GST" that impoverished the common people and enriched the likes of Adani.

Expressing confidence that the INDIA bloc would form the government when the Lok Sabha election results come out on 4 June, Gandhi promised that the new government would begin filling up the 30 lakh job vacancies in the central government by 15 August at the latest.

Rahul Gandhi then went on to appeal to the nation's youth in a video posted on X to not lose hope, to keep the real problems of India and its people in their sights and not be led astray by the Prime Minister's false propaganda.

Gandhi also accused the prime minister of having privatised several government-owned PSUs (public sector undertakings) to benefit private sector firms and in the process ensuring that the benefits of reservations for minorities and disprivileged populations that should have ensured representation and employment for them were rendered ineffective.

The Congress leader said, "BJP wants to abolish reservations while Congress wants to increase them beyond 50 per cent."

He added that the logic of this would be borne out by the pan-India caste census that the INDIA bloc would roll out promptly upon coming into power.

With PTI inputs