New Delhi (Agency): To recharge the politics of social justice before the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, Congress has started a campaign to mobilise Dalits, tribals, OBCs and minorities through its National Leadership Development Mission (NLDM). At the first conference of NLDM coordinators, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said that people from backward castes and minority communities should formulate their own political clout, instead of relying on the pity of entrenched forces. The mission was conceived at the Udaipur Chintan Shivir of the Congress.
Though the mission is now operational in only 61 reserved parliamentary constituencies in 18 states, Congress plans to expand its activities. Recently, Rahul Gandhi had demanded that the Union government go for a caste census immediately. Mallikarjun Kharge had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the issue, while Rahul had also asked that the government make the 2011 data on castes public and lift the 50 per cent cap on reservation for the backwards classes. However, Congress has tried to shift the focus on to caste census and which the party believes can unite the Other Backward Castes (OBC), SC, ST and minorities voters in its side.
