After the Election Commission announced the dates for elections in five states, the Congress’ highest decision-making body, the CWC, met in Delhi to draw the strategy for future polls. The meeting took place at 24 Akbar Road and was attended by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Chief Ministers of Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan Bhupesh Bhagel and Ashok Gehlot respectively.
The CWC passed a resolution for caste-based census in the Congress-ruled states. It further said that if voted to power in 2024, it will hold the same sort of caste-based census across the country.
Addressing a press conference after a four-hour long CWC meeting presided over by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge here today, former Congress president Rahul Gandhi said his party will force the Prime Minister to conduct the caste census or will make him get out of the way. Gandhi said, all the four Chief Ministers of Congress-ruled states, who were also present at the press conference, have decided to get caste census done in their respective states.
Describing “caste census” as a “very progressive and powerful step for the emancipation of the poor people in our country”, the senior Congress leader said that it will set a new paradigm of development in the country as it will establish the actual status of the OBCs, Dalits, the Adivasis and the poor. He said, otherwise right now, there are “two Indias”, one represented by people like Adani and the rest, the others. He said, a new political and economic model will be built in the country based on the caste census.
To a question whether other I.N.D.I.A bloc partners were also supporting the caste census, he said, by and large everybody was in agreement. “Most of the parties in the I.N.D.I.A bloc are unanimous that the caste census should be implemented. There may be a few who may have a slightly different position and that’s fine, we are quite flexible,” he added.
Attacking the “Jitni aabadi, utna haq” slogan, PM Modi had said that for the BJP, the only caste is the poor. However, Rahul Gandhi maintained that he (the PM) was used to resorting to distracting from the real issues and he was doing precisely the same thing. He said that the PM will resort to such distracting tactics more and more in the coming days.
He said, out of four Congress Chief Ministers, three were OBCs, while out of ten BJP Chief Ministers only one was an OBC and even he will no more be the Chief Minister very soon, while referring to Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, suggesting that the BJP was going to lose from there in the Assembly elections scheduled for next month.
Responding to charges of the Prime Minister that caste census would divide people, he retorted, how does it divide people? He said, it is about due participation of people in the government based on their numbers. He pointed out, of the 90 most powerful officers, only three were from among the OBCs. Gandhi expressed confidence that the Congress will win elections in all the five states for which dates were announced today.
Kharge had chaired the CWC meeting today and urged party leaders to work in coordination, discipline and unity to ensure the party’s victory in the elections. The Congress’ strategy in the five states is to focus on the OBC reservation and caste census which directly addresses over 50% of the voters; think tanks in Congress have changed the strategy and have now decided to play the “caste card’ and get benefited in the state elections.
Interestingly in the CWC, the Israel and Palestinian conflict was also discussed and the resolution read in favour of Palestine and appeal for their rights and immediate ceasefire.