Congress trying to turn tide of upper caste anger in its favour by more tickets to community in MP

New Delhi, Sep 22: The Congress in Madhya Pradesh is trying to take advantage of the palpable anger of the upper caste community with the government in the state. Even discussion at the three-day long Congress screening committee meeting in Delhi has been centered around this issue only and the leadership has reached a point where the Congress might give more tickets to upper caste candidates in the state.

Actually the recent developments caused a sharp division among different communities and anger among the upper castes. Moreover the protest movement led by the upper cast communities had its visible impact in Madhya Pradesh where it had caused divide even among the officials and workers in the government. Officials in the MP government secretariat got emotionally driven by this movement and university and colleges did not remain unaffected with this movement rather providing support and resources for it.

Interestingly the big Congress leaders are tolerating even harsh words and abuses of the upper caste demonstrators in the want of their votes who have always been tilted towards the BJP. However, the BJP leaders and ministers got force used against the upper caste demonstrators outside their houses and programmes of the BJP while the Congress leaders were deliberately tolerating them. None of the Congress leaders lodged any campaign against the upper caste demonstrators while they too were targeted.

Sources said that when the home ministry officials and police spoke to the Congress leaders for any action against these demonstrators, but the Congress leaders refused. The Congress leaders are secretly meeting officials, lawyers and intellectuals from the upper caste and expressing their sympathy. The Congress leaders have been indirectly asked its leaders to refrain from using words like Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe and Dalits. Small and the big Congress leaders have been following this order from the past two weeks.

It is also being said that the Congress has stopped organising any programme for the scheduled castes at least for the time being. The Scheduled Caste Cell of the party has not only been confined to the reserve seats in the state Assembly but have been asked to silently work and campaign instead of making much a hullabaloo.

A senior Congress leader said that this is part of the election strategy. The upper caste communities might be appealing to push NOTA button but one must understand that their anger is against BJP not the Congress.