Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, addressing an election rally at Baran in Rajasthan on October 16, asserted that their demand for caste census is not meant to divide people or snatch anybody’s rights but only to ensure that deserving groups get their rightful share in development.
“It is the BJP’s habit of dividing people on the basis of religion and caste,” Mr. Kharge said in response to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s charge that the Congress was seeking to divide people with their demand for a nationwide caste census.
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“Caste census will tell the reality of different sections of the society, so deprived sections can be helped,” he added.
Stressing on the importance winning the Assembly election to be held on November 25, Mr. Kharge said retaining Rajasthan will help the party to power at the Centre in the 2024 Lok Sabha election.
Senior Congress leader and former Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot was not present at the event.
Lauding Chief Minister Minister Ashok Gehlot for his government’s welfare schemes, Mr. Kharge claimed that there is no parallel to the ‘Chiranjeevi’ health insurance scheme, which covers medical treatment up to ₹25 lakh.
“Now the BJP is trying to copy us. They have started making announcements on the pattern of our announcements. We implemented the guarantee schemes in Karnataka, now the BJP has also begun to talk about guarantees,” Mr. Kharge alleged.
Hitting back at Prime Minister Modi’s “Red Diary” barb against the Gehlot government, Mr. Kharge said, “It is written in that red diary that the Congress will form its government again in Rajasthan after the upcoming Assembly election”.
While launching an awareness campaign for the Eastern Rajasthan Canal Project (ERCP) in Baran district recently, Mr. Modi had alleged that “financial wrongdoings” of the Gehlot government were detailed in a Red Diary.
The Congress chief alleged that the Prime Minister did nothing for the ERCP and the State government is working on the project by spending ₹25,000 crore.
The ERCP, first proposed by the previous BJP government in Rajasthan, is an ambitious project to meet the drinking water and irrigation needs of 13 districts --Jaipur, Jhalawar, Baran, Kota, Bundi, Sawai Madhopur, Ajmer, Tonk, Dausa, Karauli, Alwar, Bharatpur and Dholpur.
Mr. Kharge said though the people elected 25 BJP MPs from the State in the 2019 Lok Sabha election “they could neither bring funds nor water”.
The Congress chief also said that though the BJP tried to bring down the government, it didn’t succeed because of the Chief Minister, MLAs, and other leaders.
The rally was attended by Congress general secretary (organisation) K.C. Venugopal, party in-charge for Rajasthan Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, State party chief Govind Singh Dotasra among others.
