Congress’s ‘primary agenda’ of caste census yet to gain momentum on ground in Madhya Pradesh 

MP polls: Caste census issue fails to gain momentum on ground; Congress, BJP strategise. Congress's poll plank of caste-based population survey fails to gain traction among voters in MP; BJP keeps quiet, awaits impact of polls before devising strategy.

An alaav (bonfire) is lit around 9 p.m. outside a dhaba in Shahpur of Betul district with some men gathered around it. While the alaav symbolises arrival of winters, the conversations around it vary. However, with the Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections approaching fast, they dominate the conversations in the gatherings. 

Manohar Wagadre, an electronic shop owner in Shahpur town, who hails from the Other Backward Class (OBC) community, expresses his disapproval for an exercise to find out the caste-based population in his State or the country. He says, “It will again promote enmity between people and take us back to the days of caste-based politics. It can get really ugly.”

Dubbed as the party’s “primary agenda” for the November 17 Assembly polls, the top leadership of the Congress has promised a caste-based population survey if voted to power in Madhya Pradesh. In the past one month, almost all of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s speeches in Madhya Pradesh have been dominated by the poll plank, aimed at wooing the OBCs and the tribals that make up nearly 50% and 21% of the State’s population, respectively.  

While he calls the exercise an “X-Ray” to detect the problems of the tribals, Dalits and backward classes, Mr. Gandhi has also devised a simple example to explain the need of a caste census to the OBC and tribal voters of the State. 

At a rally in Ashok Nagar on November 9, Mr. Gandhi had said, “The budget of Madhya Pradesh is approximately ₹3.5 lakh crore and Shivraj Singh Chouhan and his 53 officers decide how the budget will be spent. Out of these 53 officers, only one officer is from the backward class.”

He has also claimed that there are 90 officers who “make decisions” regarding the Central government’s policies and only five of them are OBCs and the tribal representation is even less. 

“You [the tribals and OBCs] are unemployed because your people are not making decisions in the government,” Mr. Gandhi had said at a rally soon after the Bihar government released its report of a caste-based survey.