Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said on Monday that if his party comes to power, it will breach the 50 per cent reservation cap on caste-based reservations to increase the quota for Dalits, tribals, and other backward classes (OBCs).
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Flashing a copy of the Constitution at a campaign rally in Ratlam, Madhya Pradesh, former Congress president Rahul Gandhi said, “BJP and RSS want to finish this, change this. And the Congress and the INDIA bloc are trying to save this. This Constitution has given you rights to jal (water), jangal (forest), and zameen (land). Narendra Modi wants to remove them; he wants full power.”
Gandhi’s assertion at Ratlam follows the party’s charge that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will scrap reservation if the NDA gets a third term with a brute majority, which was strongly countered by the BJP. Repeating the allegation, he said, “That’s why they gave the ‘400 seats’ slogan. But forget 400; they are not getting 150 seats. They say they will remove reservations. I want to tell you that from this stage on, we will increase reservations beyond the 50 per cent cap. We will give as much reservation as needed for the poor, the backwards, Dalits, and adivasis.”