Taking on the BJP in Gujarat, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge accused the ruling party of not filling government job vacancies in the State because half of them will go to aspirants from Dalit, tribal and other backward caste communities.
Campaigning for the Assembly elections for the seats going to the polls in the second phase on December 5, the newly elected president of the Opposition party took on the ruling party on governance issues, claiming that the ruling party’s leaders seek to deflect attention from the issues related to governance, inflation and unemployment.
He added that BJP leaders, including the PM, want to polarise the electorate instead of talking about their performance in the government in the State and at the Centre.
He claimed that the BJP government in Gujarat was not filling up five lakh posts in government and semi-government departments and State institutions because half of them will go to aspirants from Dalit, tribal and other backward caste (OBC) communities.
“On one hand there is inflation and on the other hand unemployment. There is no job for the poor. All the jobs are either daily wages or contract basis. Today, five lakh posts in government and semi-government institutions are vacant in Gujarat,” said Mr. Kharge, asking why those posts had not been filled up for years by the BJP government in the State.
“Why don’t you fill up the posts? Because if they fill these five lakh jobs, then adivasis, Scheduled Castes and backwards or OBCs will get 50% of these jobs. This is why they do not want to fill them up,” he added.
Mr. Kharge, addressing an election rally in the Scheduled Tribe (ST)-reserved Assembly constituency of Bhiloda in north Gujarat ahead of the second phase of polling on December 5, alleged that the BJP-ruled State has seen a 17% rise in cases of atrocities against Dalits and adivasis or tribals.
He said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and local leaders talk about a “double engine” government, a term often used by the BJP to highlight the benefits of having the same party in power at the Centre and the States, and questioned why this “engine” had failed, leading to Gujarat having three Chief Ministers in six years.
According to Mr. Kharge, the BJP has brought in an army of five Chief Ministers, 40 Central Ministers and 150 Ministers of neighbouring States to campaign against the Congress in Gujarat.
He asked the BJP to present its report card of governance after being in power in the State for over 20 years, instead of asking the Congress what it had done while it was in power before 1995.
