Rahul Gandhi promises caste census in Telangana

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New Delhi, October 19

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi today said his party would get a caste census conducted in Telangana if voted to power in the November 30 Assembly elections.

Targeting the state’s ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), he said a caste census would reveal how much Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao’s family had “looted” the state.

2nd MP list released

The Congress on Thursday night announced its second list of 85 candidates for the MP Assembly polls and replaced three of its previously declared nominees. With this, the Congress has declared all but one candidate for elections to the 230-member Assembly.

Addressing a rally in Telangana’s Bhupalpally, Rahul said Congress governments in Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Karnataka had already taken initiative in this regard.

In the 2018 Assembly elections, the BRS had won 88 of the 119 seats with a vote share of 47.4 per cent while the Congress got 19 (28.7 per cent vote share).

Rahul, on a three-day visit to the state, said caste census needed to be held urgently in the country. “When PM Narendra Modi and CM KCR address election meetings, people should ask them when caste census will take place in the state. Like an X-ray, caste census will reveal the percentage of backward castes, Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and minorities, enabling proportionate budget allocation,” he said.

The Congress has made caste census a focal issue of its campaign nationwide to corner the BJP ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

Rahul also alleged that the KCR government was the most corrupt in the country. “One thought people’s rule will prevail in Telangana after it came into being through a popular movement. But it is only one family that controls the state. Corruption in the state is the highest in the country,” the Congress leader said.