BHOPAL: Three months after Priyanka Gandhi Vadra launched her party’s poll campaign in Madhya Pradesh, her MP brother Rahul Gandhi addressed his first election rally in the BJP-ruled state on Saturday, terming the coming assembly polls as a “Gandhi vs Godse ideological battle.”
The Other Backward Classes (OBC) form more than half of the state’s population and have long been seen as the ruling BJP’s backbone in MP. The former Congress president, while questioning why the OBC quota wasn’t included in the recently passed women reservation bill, promised that caste census will be the first thing to do “once our government comes to power at the Centre.”
Rahul also took on the state BJP government on “rampant corruption,” accusing the BJP of turning MP into the “epicentre of corruption” in the country. “Maximum corruption in the country has taken place in BJP-ruled MP. In the 18-year BJP rule, 18,000 farmers have ended their lives in MP, which means three farmers are losing their lives daily in the state.”
Nine months after he had traversed through the same western region of MP on foot during the Bharat Jodo Yatra in November-December 2022, Gandhi joined one of the seven ongoing statewide Jan Akrosh Yatras of the Congress before addressing the Jan Akrosh Rally in Kalapipal assembly segment of OBC-dominant Shajapur district on Saturday.
“Narendra Modi prides himself as an OBC leader. If it’s really true, then why wasn’t the OBC quota included in the recently passed 33% women reservation bill? Ask any BJP MP whether he was consulted by their party and the leader while making laws. Their answer will be no,” said Rahul.
“The laws are being framed in the country by the RSS and 90 government officers, out of whom just three come from the OBC segment. Though OBCs form around 50% of the country’s population, the three OBC segment officers (who are among the 90 officers who call the shots) control just 5% funds out of the total budget of the country,” said the Congress leader.
“Let me assure one and all that once our government returns at the Centre, the caste census will be the first task to be done in the country. Due to politics of hate and arrogance pursued by the BJP, the youth and farmers of MP, have started hating the BJP,” he said.