Congress leader Rahul Gandhi along with Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, party's state in charge Kumari Selja and state unit chief Dipak Baij, rode a train from Bilaspur to Raipur on Monday. Congress official X handle posted a picture showing Gandhi interacting with co-passengers inside an Intercity train from Bilaspur with the caption - "Bilaspur se Raipur....Jannayak"
Gandhi on Monday had a train ride after addressing a state government event in Bilaspur.
The ruling Congress has routinely claimed the railway ministry had cancelled 2,600 trains in the state in the last few months, which was causing immense hardship to people.
Gandhi attended 'Awas Nyay Sammelan', an event of the Congress government in the state, in Parsada (Sakri) village in Takhatpur development block of Bilaspur district in the afternoon.
While speaking at the event, he took a swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP government over the 'caste census' in poll-bound Chhattisgarh. The Wayanad MP who was addressing state government's 'Awas Nyay Sammelan' in Parsada (Sakri) village in Bilaspur promised to conduct a "caste census" if Congress elected to power stressing that only such an exercise would ensure "participation of OBCs, Dalits, tribals and women".
"Caste census has to be conducted if we want to give participation to Other Backward Classes, Dalits, tribals and women. If Modiji does not conduct a caste census, then when we are elected to power our first step will be to conduct a caste census to ensure OBC participation," Gandhi asserted.
Gandhi said the government is run by secretaries and cabinet secretaries and not MPs and MLAs, and pointed out that only three of the 90 secretaries in various Union government ministries are OBCs. These three persons control only 5 per cent of the country's budget, Gandhi said and questioned if India only had 5 per cent OBC population. Asserting that the caste census is the answer to such questions, Gandhi asked why Modi was scared of the enumeration exercise.
