Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday said the first task of the India Bloc would be to work towards ensuring that crores of people become “lakhpatis”.

He also assured that a caste census would be held if the alliance wins to give their due share to Dalits, tribals, minorities and poor belonging to the general castes.

Addressing a rally at Balangir in Western Odisha, Rahul said: “On June 4, a list of poor, comprising Dalits, minorities, poor from the general castes will be compiled. From each family, the name of one woman will be selected and ₹8,500 will be credited into her bank account. The next month, another ₹8,500 will be credited to the account of the woman. In a year, one lakh will be credited into the accounts “Khata Khata… Khata-Khata”. We will make crores of lakhpatis if voted to power.”

Immediately connecting with the masses, Rahul asked a woman in the audience to tell her name. As soon as the woman said she was Susmita Sahu, Rahul said, “The money would be credited to Susmita Sahu and crores of Susmita Sahus from July 4 onwards in their bank accounts,”

Rahul continued how the Congress plans to re-tart the economic engine of the country. “Modiji had waived loans of 22 billionaires to the tune of ₹16 lakh crore. This amount comes around the wages of 24 years of MNREGS. However, the billionaires have spent money purchasing properties on foreign soil. But the money that would be credited to the account of the crores of women, will be spent in the villages and towns by them in purchasing mobile phones, scooty and other essential items. The factories will restart again and the people will get jobs.”

The Gandhi scion said: “The backward, Dalits, tribals and poor general caste and minorities have no participation in the country…. We have to change this. The first step — a revolutionary step — we have written in our manifesto that a caste census would be done so that backward, Dalit, tribals and poor general caste of the country will get to know about their population and participation in the country. Everything will be clear and after that revolutionary politics will begin, politics of the people will begin.”

Rahul also maintained that a conspiracy had been hatched to end the reservation system in India. “They wanted to snatch away your rights,” Rahul said, adding that the country is being governed by 90 officers of which there are only three Dalits and one
tribal.