Jaipur (PTI): The BJP government in Rajasthan is all set to take up an anti-religious conversion bill in the ongoing assembly session for discussion and passage on March 20 despite strong reservations on it by Opposition Congress.

The Congress has warned that it would protest inside the House and on the streets as the bill, reintroduced by the government, was a "hidden Hindu agenda to appease RSS in the state assembly elections slated later this year".

The Raje government has introduced a fresh bill, the Rajasthan Dharma Swatantrya Bill, 2008, last week with some changes as the earlier measure, passed by the Assembly through a voice vote on April 7, 2006, was still pending with President Pratibha Patil for assent.

Patil, who was the then Governor of Rajasthan, had returned it with objections in certain clauses to the assembly. Later in 2007, the Raje cabinet had "re-submitted" the bill to the Governor for approval, but Patil had referred it to the then President A P J Abdul Kalama with her remarks.

"The 2006 bill is still pending with the President. Let that be decided or returned. It was only after that the BJP government should have thought of reintroducing the bill on the same matter," Congress Chief Whip Juber Khan told PTI.

"It appears that the BJP government is working on the hidden Hindu agenda to appease RSS in the Vidhan Sabha elections slated later this year in the state," Khan said.