MP Polls: Congress Takes Cue from Karnataka, Announces Caste-Based Census If Voted To Power

The Congress will conduct a caste census in Madhya Pradesh after winning the assembly polls in the state, said party president Mallikarjun Kharge on Tuesday. He was addressing a public rally in Sagar in MP's Bundelkhand region.

Assembly polls are expected to be held in the BJP-ruled state at the end of the year.

The BJP government has not implemented the Bundelkhand package sanctioned on the recommendation of senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, said Kharge. The Congress president criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi, accusing him of not doing "anything" for violence-hit Manipur.

Referring to the laying of the foundation stone of a Rs 100 crore memorial-cum-temple of Sant Ravidas, a revered figure for Scheduled Castes, by PM Modi earlier this month, Kharge said "they laid the foundation of Saint Ravidas temple in Sagar but demolished his in Delhi".

He alleged that PM Modi remembered Saint Ravidas only during elections. As per the 2011 Census, the population of Dalits in MP was 1.13 crore.

Bundelkhand, in north east MP, has six Assembly seats reserved for SCs, and the BJP had won five of them in the 2018 state polls, namely Bina, Naryoli, Jatara, Chandala and Hatta, while the Congress managed to get Gunnor.

Bundelkhand comprises Sagar, Chattarpur, Tikamgarh, Nimari, Damoh and Panna districts, with 26 Assembly seats, of which 15 were won by the BJP in the last state polls, while the Congress got nine and and one each was won by Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party.