Backward classes must get their rights, respect: Akhilesh

Samajwadi Party chief said after the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, his party will ensure a caste census in the country

Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav on Sunday said there are many people from backward communities and classes who are yet to be brought into the mainstream as he pitched for a caste census in the country. He was addressing a gathering at a Haryana Jansewak Party rally in Jind organised by Balraj Kundu, an independent legislator who represents Meham in Haryana assembly, said a statement from Samajwadi Party.

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav addressing Haryana Jansewak Party rally in Jind on November 19. (Sourced)

A few months back, Kundu floated his own outfit Haryana Jansewak Party. The development comes ahead of the next year’s assembly polls in Haryana, where the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) (JJP) coalition is in power. Yadav said his party will continue to work towards ensuring that people from backward communities and classes get their rights and respect.

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“We assure you that the way the whole country today wants a caste census because after so many years of independence there are many backward people whose counting could not be done and we could not bring them into the mainstream,” the SP president said.

“There are many castes in the country which do not have any identification. Therefore, a voice which once raised from Uttar Pradesh (for a caste census), is now also being raised in Bihar. We know that people of Haryana also want this (census),” he said.

He said after the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, his party will ensure a caste census in the country. The Congress has also been demanding a caste census and has promised to get the survey done if voted to power at the Centre. The Nitish Kumar-led Janata Dal(United) government in Bihar has already released findings of its caste survey.

Yadav also spoke against the Centre’s Agniveer scheme for recruiting soldiers. In the SP’s Lok Sabha poll manifesto, the party will promise to end the scheme, he said. “I want to say this to you as the youth of Haryana are joining as Agniveers. I want to tell them that whenever the Samajwadi Party gets a chance to come to power, we assure you that during the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the first promise in the poll manifesto of the SP will be to end the Agniveer system and restore the earlier system of recruitment,” Yadav said. Former Gujarat chief minister Shankersinh Vaghela was prominent among those present on the occasion. (With agencies inputs)