Will demand for caste-based Census bring Tejashwi Yadav closer to Nitish?

PATNA: For the first time in the last four years, there is unanimity of perception both in the BJP and its bete noir the RJD that the otherwise ice-cold and tense relationship between CM Nitish Kumar and leader of opposition in the state assembly Tejashwi Prasad Yadav has started thawing out.
This follows Nitish’s decision on Friday to lead an all-party delegation of the state MLAs to Delhi for talks with PM Narendra Modi to plead for the caste-based general Census in the country -- something that the Centre has already spelt out in Parliament that it was not possible. The BJP has been maintaining that it favoured a Census of poor people, but not a caste-based one.
Nitish, who has repeatedly said he and his party JD(U) favoured the caste-based Census, took the decision after Tejashwi, along with the legislature party leaders of the opposition parties, called on him in his assembly chamber on Friday.
Their purpose was to make Nitish agree to the opposition’s demand that he should lead an all-party delegation to PM Modi to apprise him of their concerns and also about the unanimous resolutions adopted by the House for a caste-based Census twice, in 2019 and 2020.
Nitish would write a formal letter to PM Modi on August 2 seeking an appointment for the delegation meeting, but the political circles are already agog about the political impact of his decision.
Observers see in it a sure sign of Nitish, Tejashwi, RJD and other opposition parties coming closer. They have also been reading the signs of likely political realignment in the near or distant future, or even after the results of the UP assembly elections next year.
“The ball is in the court of Nitish. He has to clarify his position; if he is with the OBC and EBC sections, or with the BJP that is opposed to the interests of the OBC and EBC groups,” state RJD spokesman Chitranjan Gagan said, adding: “Tejashwi has also opened an alternative for him. The CM can go for the caste-based population count in the state with its own resources, like in Karnataka.”
Officially, the Bihar BJP is unfazed by the new development. “Anyone, and any social or political group, can put its demand before the PM. Until Parliament decides on holding a caste-based Census, nothing can be done,” state BJP spokesman Prem Ranjan Patel said.
“The caste-based Census was held for the first time in 1931. No Census could be held in 1941.In 1951, when the demand surfaced, the then Union home minister Sardar Ballabh Bhai Patel opposed it, saying it will disrupt the social fabric,” Patel added.
However, as the Bihar BJP sources said, the party has been stymied by the new development. “The distance between Nitish and Tejashwi has narrowed. It also shows that Nitish and Tejashwi have started ‘talking beak to beak, if not listening to each other ear to ear’. That tense relation between them will no longer be seen now,” a state BJP source said.
Nitish and Tejashwi were together precisely after four years, since Nitish dismantled the grand alliance government in July 2017 to form the NDA government with BJP, again. There was also a bonhomie between them, as “they talked in an amiable atmosphere, and they also kept smiling.”
“The BJP central leadership wants coordination in the state among the NDA partners. They will not like to see Nitish going to the other side, if the 2024 parliamentary elections have to be won in the state. Any confusion in the Bihar NDA will also immediately impact the UP elections,” the BJP source added.