Congress banks on politics of social justice to take on BJP's troika of Modi, Hindutva, development

 Right before the Election Commission declared the dates for the assembly elections, in poll-bound Rajasthan, the Ashok Gehlot government beat the Model Code of Conduct by issuing an order for conducting caste census.

On the day the election dates were announced, the Congress Working Committee resolved that if the party came to power, it would carry out a nationwide caste census. The decision of the CWC was announced by former Congress president Rahul Gandhi at a press conference, where he was accompanied by the chief ministers of the four states where the party is in power.

Three of the chief ministers belong to the Other Backward Castes, and two of them are at the helm in election-going states.

The promise to conduct a caste census is amongst the foremost pledges made by the Congress in its manifesto in Madhya Pradesh. The party has also promised a caste headcount in the other poll-bound states.

The urgency with which the Congress made moves with regard to the caste census and the forcefulness with which it has raised the issue in its campaign for the coming round of state elections clearly show that the party is banking on the politics of social justice to boost its chances at the hustings.

The chief ministers in the two party-ruled states that go to polls – Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh – Ashok Gehlot and Bhupesh Baghel, belong to the OBC category. Gehlot, who belongs to the Mali community, has relied on the support of Dalit, Tribal, Muslim and OBC votes, mainly the voters belonging to the Mali and Saini communities. The Congress had garnered the support of the Gujjar community, to which former deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot belongs, in the elections in 2018. The party is hoping to keep the Gujjars in its corner, and the emphasis on caste census and reservation proportionate to numbers could help in this regard.

Baghel is the Congress' OBC poster boy in Chhattisgarh. He has worked on his image as a leader who is concerned about the welfare of the backward sections. He has strived to come across as pro-poor and pro-farmer.

OBCs are estimated to constitute 40 per cent of the population in Madhya Pradesh, 45 per cent in Chhattisgarh, 38 per cent in Rajasthan and 48 per cent in Telangana. Since the contests, especially in the Hindi heartland states, are between the Congress and the BJP, the coming elections will prove to be a litmus test for the party's emphasis on the politics of social justice combined with welfarism. Ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, it will provide the Congress with proof of how well the strategy works against the BJP's dependence on Prime Minister Narendra Modi as its poll mascot and its formula of combining Hindutva-related issues and development.