Cong govt gave OBC status to Modi’s caste: BJP

Hyderabad: Seeking to nail the Congress party’s lie over Narendra Modi’s caste issue, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday said it was the then Chhabildas Mehta government that granted OBC status to Modh Ghanchis in 1994 and not the BJP government as being claimed.

“It was on July 25, 1994 that the then Congress government in Gujarat granted OBC status to Modh Ghanchis, a caste to which Narendra Modi belongs, based on the recommendations of the Baxi Commission. Shaktisinh Gohil, who has levelled allegations of Modi being a ‘fake OBC’, was a minister in the Mehta government at that time,” BJP senior leader M. Venkaiah Naidu pointed out.

“The Congress has been claiming that Modi granted OBC status to his own caste after he became chief minister in 2001 but the fact is otherwise,” Venkaiah Naidu told a press conference here on Saturday.

It was in sheer desperation that the Congress has raked up Modi’s caste issue now after all its other attempts to run him down failed, he said.

“They accused Modi of indulging in neech rajniti (low-level politics). Neech rajniti kya hota hai? Who is indulging in it? Is it the ₹ 1.70 lakh crore coal scam, ₹ 1.8 lakh crore 2G spectrum scam, cash-for-votes, sugar scam or wheat scam?” Naidu asked.

He said the people’s verdict was not far away and the Congress would be thrown into history books. It would mark the end of family rule in the country. “It’s only a matter of less than a week. People have overwhelmingly voted for Modi and the NDA. The NDA will win 300 plus seats and there will not be any need for seeking support from anybody,” the senior BJP leader said.

Replying to a question, Naidu denied claims that Modi was trying to “woo” leaders, including Mamata Banerjee, J. Jayalalithaa and others into the NDA fold. “Modi is not trying to woo anybody. We are not arrogant. If someone comes to support us, we will not turn it down. But we will not go to anyone on our own and seek support,” he asserted. PTI