"Who Stopped Caste Census? The Congress": Akhilesh Yadav In Madhya Pradesh

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Thursday said the Congress did not implement the recommendations of the Mandal Commission and has opposed the caste census.

Speaking to reporters in Rajnagar in Chhatarpur in Madhya Pradesh, where Assembly polls are to be held on November 17, he said the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party were now talking about caste census with an eye on polls.

"The Congress, which never talked about social justice, is doing so today. Who stopped the Mandal Commission recommendations? The Congress. Who stopped the caste census? The Congress," Mr Yadav said.

"The SP believes social justice will be achieved only when there is caste census and everyone gets rights and respect in proportion to their population. Only then will Babasaheb Ambedkar's dream be fulfilled," the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister said.

Asked about the loan burden on MP, Mr Yadav said the state's economy had collapsed despite a "double engine government", a term used by BJP to describe party-led dispensations in the state and at the Centre.

He said the BJP, which has been in power for several years in MP, was responsible for the precarious economic situation of the state.

However, if loans have to be taken to provide facilities to the poor, then one should not step back from it, he added.

Asked about Congress making the Ram Temple in Ayodhya an issue, Mr Yadav said it was nothing new if a person whose name is also the symbol of the BJP, a reference to MP Congress chief Kamal Nath, talks about it.

In an interview earlier, Mr Nath had said it was then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi who had got the gates of the Ram Temple site opened (in the 1980s).

Asked about Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's remarks in the Assembly there, Mr Yadav said the former had apologised and 'so we should not discuss it now".

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)