BILASPUR: Rahul Gandhi, the leader of the Congress, declared on Monday that if his party were to win the election, it would conduct a “caste census” in order to guarantee the “participation of OBCs, Dalits, tribals, and women.” Additionally, he questioned whether the Prime Minister was afraid of such an effort and demanded to know why the Narendra Modi administration had withheld information about a “caste census” carried out by the Congress (when it was in office). Gandhi also waved a remote control at the audience while speaking at the state government’s “Awas Nyay Sammelan” in the Parsada (Sakri) village of Bilaspur. He claimed that when the Congress pressed the remote, the poor and needy benefited, but that when the governing BJP did the same, “Adani gets ports, airports, and railway contracts.”“The Congress carried out a caste census, which contains data on the population of each caste in the nation. This report is in the possession of the Union government, but Modiji refuses to make it public, he said. If we wish to allow participation for Other Backward Classes, Dalits, tribals, and women, a caste census must be undertaken. Gandhi stated that if Modi does not conduct a caste census, then when we get to power, our first action will be to organise a caste census to guarantee OBC representation. Gandhi noted that only three of the 90 secretaries in various Union government ministries are members of the OBC and that the government is managed by secretaries and cabinet secretaries rather than by MPs and MLAs.Gandhi stated that these three people only control 5% of the nation’s budget and questioned whether there were only 5% OBC people in India. Gandhi asserted that the caste census is the solution to these issues and questioned Modi’s fear of the census process. Gandhi waved a remote control to criticise the Modi administration at the occasion when he unveiled the Gramin Awas Nyay Yojna (GANY) of the Bhupesh Baghel government, which aims to give financial aid to families living in kutcha huts and homeless people in rural areas. Gandhi claimed that by pressing a remote button today, thousands of crores of rupees were deposited into the accounts of Chhattisgarh residents.The housing programme, which was announced during the day, will help those who were eligible for assistance under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana but were unable to receive it since the Centre refused to release funding despite repeated requests from the state government, according to Gandhi. In front of cameras, we (Congress) press a remote control. It is done covertly by the BJP. The railway and airport contracts for Mumbai are awarded to tycoon Gautam Adani when the BJP presses a remote control, he claimed. Two remote controls are available. When we push it, English-medium schools are opened in Chhattisgarh and farmers are given money through the Nyay Scheme into their accounts. However, when the BJP pulls a lever, the public sector is privatised and Adani receives the rights to water, forests, and land, according to Gandhi.Gandhi claimed that after raising concerns about PM Modi’s ties to Adani, his membership in the Lok Sabha was terminated. Gandhi was stripped of his LS membership after being given a two-year prison sentence by a court in Surat, Gujarat, for remarks he made at a rally in Karnataka regarding why robbers acquired the surname Modi. He regained his membership in the Lower House after the Supreme Court eventually overturned his sentence.