Rahul Gandhi says PM Modi is not OBC by birth, promises legal guarantee on MSP and caste census

Lucknow: Senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday questioned the OBC credentials of prime minister Narendra Modi claiming that the latter was not an OBC ''by birth'' even as he promised a legal guarantee on the MSP and also to conduct a caste census if his party came to power in the forthcoming general elections.

Addressing a series of public meeting during his ongoing 'Bharat Jodo Nyaya Yatra' at Amethi, which he represented several times in the Lok Sabha before losing to union minister Smriti Irani in the 2019 LS polls, and Pratapgarh, Rahul said that he would continue to oppose the BJP over the latter's 'anti-people' policies without any fear.

The Congress leader also defended the farmers' agitation and slammed the Centre for using repressive tactics to prevent the farmers from marching to the national capital in support of their demands.

''Let me tell you (people) that Narendra Modi is not an OBC by birth....in the year 200, the Gujarat government included the caste to which he (Modi) belonged in the list of OBC,'' he claimed.

Rahul said that the OBCs, Dalits, tribals and the poor among the general castes were not getting their dues in the present dispensation. ''Did you see any dalit or OBC at the Ram Lalla consecration ceremony?,'' he told the gathering. The former Congress president also accused Modi of trying to 'break' the country in the name of religion and caste.

Rahul said that the ED and other central agencies had turned into 'puppets' of the government.

The Congress leader said that his party would give legal guarantees over the MSP to the farmers and also conduct a caste census if it came to power after the forthcoming LS polls.

''I saw a picture today which showed the agitating farmers providing food to the cops and the cops are preventing the farmers from marching toward Delhi...what do the farmers want?....they only want MSP....we will give them legal guarantee over MSP,'' he said.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, who also accompanied Rahul in Amethi, accused the centre and state governments of blocking developmental projects worth crores for Amethi.

Earlier Rahu, who visited Amethi after around two years, was accorded a rousing reception upon his arrival in his former bastion. A large number of people greeted Rahul as he passed through the streets of Amethi in an open jeep.

BJP workers, however, held a demonstration to protest Rahul's visit to Amethi.