Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said in Madhya Pradesh on May 5 that his party, if elected to power in the ongoing Lok Sabha election, will increase the wages under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) to ₹400 per day.
“The press says that MGNREGA ruins the people’s habits. You do the labour and get paid for it but the media says your habits are getting ruined. But when the loans of billionaires get waved, they call that development. We have made up our mind that today you get ₹250 under MGNREGA but after the elections you will get ₹400,” Mr. Gandhi said, addressing an election rally in Alirajpur under the Ratlam Lok Sabha constituency.
Later in the day, Mr. Gandhi also addressed a rally in Segaon under the Khargone Lok Sabha segment of the State. Both the constituencies are reserved for Scheduled Tribes (ST).
Mr. Gandhi also claimed that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) would not even get 150 seats in these elections.
Once again terming the ongoing elections as being about saving the Constitution and reservations, the Congress leader alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the BJP and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) wanted to “change and finish” the Constitution.
“If the Constitution gets finished, all the rights you have got will disappear. You jal, zameen aur jungle (water, land and forest), and reservation and the public sector will all disappear, and only 22-25 people will rule India,” Mr. Gandhi said.
“These are the billionaires of India and people like Adani, who have eyes on your land, water and forest. They want that your land, water and forests be taken from you and handed over to them. And they are special friends of Narendra Modi-ji,” he added, aiming to draw the dominant tribal population of the region.
“BJP leaders have clearly said that they will change this book (the Constitution) and keep it aside if they win the elections. This is why they had given the slogan of 400 seats (abki baar, 400 paar). Forget about 400, they won’t even get 150 seats,” he said, holding a copy of the Constitution in his hands.
Alleging that various BJP had talked about snatching reservation from the poor, tribals, Dalits and backward classes, Mr. Gandhi said that his party would remove the upper limit of 50% on reservation.
“We will move aside the limit of 50% set by the court and will give the poor, Dalits, backward classes and tribals as much reservation as they need,” the Congress leader said.
He also hit out at the BJP over the Sidhi urination incident from July 2023, when allegedly a BJP leader had urinated on a tribal man, and on a recent case in Alirajpur, where a minor tribal girl was gang-raped by two tribal boys. The Congress has alleged that the accused were related to State government Minister Nagar Singh Chauhan, whose wife Anita Nagar Singh Chauhan is the BJP candidate from Ratlam.
The Congress has been making attempts to woo the tribals of the region and Mr. Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra had also passed through Ratlam in March.
The Opposition party has fielded former Union Minister Kanjilal Bhuria from Ratlam against Ms. Chauhan. In Khargone, the Congress has fielded Porlal Kharte against the BJP’s Gajendra Patel.
While nine seats of Madhya Pradesh will go to the polls in the third phase on May 7, the remaining eight seats, including Ratlam and Khargone, will vote in the fourth phase on May 13.
