Madhya Pradesh: Rahul Gandhi attacks ruling BJP on corruption & caste census

Addressing his first public rally in poll-bound Madhya Pradesh’s Shajapur, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday raised two Cs – corruption and caste census – in his speech, and said that Madhya Pradesh under the BJP government has become an epicenter of corruption in the country.

Explaining ideological differences between the ruling BJP and the resurgent Congress, Rahul Gandhi said, “On one side is the Congress Party, Gandhiji and on the other side is the BJP, RSS and Godse. On one side there is hatred and violence and on the other side, there is love, respect and brotherhood. Wherever they (BJP) go, they spread hatred but now the youth and farmers of Madhya Pradesh have started hating them. Madhya Pradesh is the epicenter of corruption in the country”.

He also raised the issue of caste census and OBC reservation in women’s quota. Rahul Gandhi who supported “quota within quota" demand in parliament during the debate on women's reservation bill, attacked PM Modi and BJP for being anti-OBC. Modi belongs to the OBC community. He also said if Congress is voted to power, “the first thing we [Congress] will do is to conduct caste census”.

"What is the population of OBC in India? Do you know? No one can answer this question. The answer to this question can be found only through 'caste census'. PM Modi says that there are OBC MLAs and MPs in BJP. In such a situation, you should remember that 3 Chief Ministers of Congress are OBC, said Rahul Gandhi.

In Madhya Pradesh, OBCs constitute a large part of the total population. Put together, SCs and STs constitute about 40 per cent of the total population. While SCs constitute 17 per cent of the state’s population and SCs 21 per cent. There are 47 tribal seats and 35 reserved seats, which combined together is more than one-third of the total 230 seats of the state assembly.

Claiming that 18,000 farmers have committed suicide in Madhya Pradesh in 18 years of the BJP rule, Rahul Gandhi referred the two welfares measures taken by the Chhattisgarh [earlier part of Madhya Pradesh] government.

"Madhya Pradesh government is not giving the right price to the farmers for their crops. Go and ask the farmers of Chhattisgarh how much money they get for the paddy crop. What we promised, we completed it. For the first time in the history of India, farmers are paying taxes. They implemented GST. Our government works for the poor and farmers," said the Congress leader.

Rahul Gandhi's rally was organised as part of the Jan Aakrosh Yatra. The Congress is taking out the Jan Aakrosh Yatra from seven different regions covering 11,400 kilometres and nearly all the assembly constituencies.

Though, two of the three assembly seats of Shajapur district are currently held by the Congress, analysts believe that Rahul Gandhi's rally will boost Congress' prospects on 20-25 seats of western MP (Malwa region, particularly the Ujjain division) and neighbouring central MP.

After Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi is expected to address a poll rally in tribal-dominated area of west MP’s Dhar district on October 5.