Dikhyaa Mohanty 
In an effort to promote social, political, and economic justice, the Odisha Congress stated on Friday that it would launch a statewide campaign called “Samvidhan Bachao” (Save the Constitution), which would include outreach events and demonstrations from April 28 to May 30. At a news conference, State Congress in-charge Ajay Kumar Lallu gave a timeline of the campaign. On April 28, a state-level rally will begin in Bhubaneswar. From May 3 to May 10, district-level rallies will follow. After that, from May 11 to 17, the campaign will spread to assembly constituencies. From May 20 to 30, door-to-door outreach will wrap out the campaign.
Lallu claimed that by focusing on Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi in what he described as a “fabricated” National Herald case, the BJP-led federal government was weakening the Constitution and deflecting public attention. In order to defend the rights of Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs), and Other Backward Classes (OBCs), he underlined Rahul Gandhi’s call for a caste census.
Lallu drew attention to the inequalities, pointing out that although OBCs make up 54% of the population in Odisha, they only receive 11.25% of government employment and no quota in schools. He chastised Odisha’s OBC Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan for ignoring this problem. In attendance, Rama Chandra Kadam, the head of the Congress Legislature Party, charged that the BJP state government was denying tribal groups their rights by failing to enforce the Panchayats Extension to Scheduled Areas (PESA) Act, 1996. The campaign aims to mobilize support for just and equitable policies by bringing attention to potential threats to constitutional principles under the present central government.
