Rahul promises to remove 50% cap on quota, give Rs 8,500 per month to poor women

Rahul promises to remove 50% cap on quota, give Rs 8,500 per month to poor women

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday promised to remove the 50 per cent cap on reservation if the opposition-backed INDIA bloc comes to power in Madhya Pradesh.

Taking a jibe at the BJP’s “abki baar, 400 paar” war cry, he claimed the saffron party would not be able to win even 150 seats in the general election.

Gandhi said the Congress has drafted an innovative plan which no other government has ever thought of, adding that it would provide Rs 8,500 per month, totaling more than Rs one lakh a year, to one woman from each poor family.

Addressing two poll rallies at Segaon in the Khargone (ST) Lok Sabha constituency and Alirajpur in Ratlam (ST) Lok Sabha seat of Madhya Pradesh, he reiterated that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) are planning to end the Constitution.

“All that the dalits, tribals, OBCs, poor and downtrodden of the country have received after Independence is thanks to the Constitution, but Modi and the BJP have decided to end this Constitution and deprive you of everything,” Gandhi told the gathering at Alirajpur, holding a copy of the Constitution in his hand.

He alleged that the prime minister plans to hand over the land, forest and water resources of the nation to a handful of his industrialist friends.

He cautioned that if the BJP forms the government again, about two-dozen industrialist friends of Modi would control all the resources of the nation and they would run the entire government. He said Modi waived off loans worth more than Rs 16 lakh crore of his industrialist friends,  but did not waive off a single penny of the farmers’ pending loan amounts.

The Gandhi scion asserted that the Congress has genuinely worked for the welfare of the poor and tribals. He said the Congress believes that the adivasis or tribals have the first right on the resources of the country.

“… leave aside snatching your reservation, we are going to raise it above the 50 per cent limit,” he promised.

The Supreme Court, however, has capped the reservation limit to 50 per cent.

“When the Congress forms the government, we will put Rs one lakh a year directly into the bank account of one woman from each poor family till that family is brought above the poverty line,” the Congress leader underlined.

“Narendra Modi has made some people crorepatis, but we are going to make crores of people lakhpati,” Rahul Gandhi asserted.

He encouraged the Congress workers, calling them lions, and urged them to toil in the ongoing Lok Sabha polls, to save the country’s democracy and Constitution.

The Ratlam and Khargone Lok Sabha seats would go to polls along with six other seats of the state in the fourth phase of polling on 13 May, the last phase for Madhya Pradesh.