The state of Chhattisgarh is going to polls in a few months and in such a scenario, every political party has started preparations for it, with unravelling of their strategies and what they have to say about their future course of action. Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel spoke about his party’s prospects in the upcoming assembly polls in the state as well numerous developmental work executed by his government in the last five years.
Q: There has been lots of buzz on providing headcount-based reservation in the state. What do you want to say about this?
A: The Congress has clarity on this as it wants to provide reservation to people in government jobs based on their headcounts. The Mandal Commission had provided 27 per cent reservation to OBCs as per their number then. There was a constitutional provision of 27 per cent reservation to SCs and STs to uplift them. Thus, there should not be any ambiguity if the state government of Chhattisgarh thinks of providing reservation to people as per their population.
He further said that the government is committed to the cause of welfare of the downtrodden people.
Q: Congress and the like-minded parties have formed I.N.D.I.A. alliance to trounce the BJP at the Centre. Do you have second opinion about this?
A: People have seen rising cases of killing, intimidation and unemployment during the last 9 years of the Modi government. Leaders who try to speak their mind are threatened with ED and other central government agencies. Inflation is rising and prices of everything have risen to an unbearable scale. People of the country are fed up with all these. Sensing the mood of the common people, Congress and the like-minded partied minted an alliance to remove the BJP from the Centre at 2024.
Q: You talked about communal violence, especially Manipur violence and that the Centre failed to control the situation. Can you shed light on this?
A: From the very beginning, the Congress has been saying that if the Centre had tried to control the Manipur violence, it would have succeeded in it. The fact was that the Centre wanted to keep the state burning. Even in the Parliament, Prime Minister Narendra Modi tried his best to bypass the situation.
