‘Cong will conduct caste census in MP after winning Assembly polls’

Bhopal: Congress president Mallikarjun Karge on Tuesday said that his party would conduct a caste census in Madhya Pradesh after winning the Assembly polls in the state.

Kharge made this remark while addressing a public rally, Jan Akrosh Sabha in Schedule Caste dominated Sagar of Bundelkhand area in the poll-bound MP where Assembly polls are round the corner. The Congress president accused the BJP-led Madhya Pradesh government of not implementing the ‘Bundelkhand Package’ sanctioned by the Congress government of Manmohan Singh on the recommendation of former party chief Rahul Gandhi.

“The caste-based census will be conducted in the state if Congress voted to power in the Assembly’s upcoming polls”, Kharge promised. “Only the caste census can reveal which community is poor, who are really backward, who are landless, and who are uneducated,” he also said.

The population of SC population in the state was 1.13 crore according to the 2011 census.

A substantial Dalit population is in MP’s Bundelkhand, Gwalior-Chambal and Rewa regions. In the 2018 Assembly polls, it is considered that the indifference of Dalit voters to the BJP was one of the major factors of its debacle.

“Modi Ji in power for the last nine years while Shivraj Singh Chouhan is ruling the state for the last 18 years, they remembered Ravidas only at the time of the elections”, Kharge said. He cited a newspaper report, he claimed that the BJP demolished a temple of Ravidas in Delhi.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has recently laid the foundation stone of a Rs 100 crore temple-cum-memorial of the revered figure for Dalits in Sagar.

Kharge announced that a university would be set up after the Sant Ravidas in Sagar district if Congress comes to power.

“Some people are trying to change the Constitution. This is not possible because 140 crore people in the country are in support to protect it”, Kharge said. He also remembered Dr B R Ambedkar, who was born in Mhow of the state.

Responding to Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who recently asked Congress to tell people what it had done in 50 years of rule in the state, Kharge listed work done by his government.

Criticising Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Kharge said that he did nothing for the violence-hit Manipur.

He reiterated the party’s five promises of waiving farmers’ debt, 100 units of free power, ₹1,500 monthly cash allowances for women, gas cylinders for ₹500 and the restoration of the old pension scheme for government employees.

Targeting the BJP, Kharge said that corruption was 40% in Karnataka and asked how much was it in MP. “We have removed the 40% government in Karnataka and it is now on you (people) to push out this 50% government,” he said.

Addressing the rally, Congress state unit president Kamal Nath said the state had taken the top spot in corruption, atrocities against Dalits, unemployment and lawlessness. “The BJP is known here for, “Prachaar (publicity), Bhrastachaar (corruption])and Atyachaar (atrocities)”, Nath said.