BSP chief Mayawati made a subtle jab at Rahul Gandhi by claiming that while a prominent leader of the Congress party is vociferously calling for a caste-based census right now, previous Congress administrations have rejected the demand of OBCs to be given reservation on par with SC and STs. In addition, she criticized the NDA government in the Central government for failing to include a separate quota for OBCs, SC, and ST in the Women’s Reservation Bill that was just passed by Parliament.
Speaking at an election rally on Thursday in Peddapalli, Telangana, Mayawati recalled that the Congress, which ruled for a considerable amount of time after India’s independence, was the organization from which the majority of the backward classes had requested reservation benefits, such as SCs and STs.
“With a view to getting votes of SC, ST, OBCs, a senior leader of the Congress is now campaigning in his election meetings that caste census should be conducted,” she said.
“… These people are talking about caste census (now). When the Congress was in power for long after Independence, people belonging to the most backward class had demanded reservation for them also like SC and ST,” she added.
Mayawati cited the reports of the Mandal and Kaka Kalelkar Commissions that suggested reservations for the OBCs and claimed that the Congress had not carried them out. The leader of the BSP recalled that her party pressured the then Congress government in the Central government by holding agitations to demand the implementation of the Mandal Commission report. She said, however, that the report was rejected by the grand old party.