Ahead of delegation of 11 political leaders of Bihar led by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on caste-based census, the Bihar’s former deputy CM Sushil Modi on Sunday said that the BJP has never been against the caste census.
In a series tweets on Sunday, Bihar BJP senior leader and Rajya Sabha MP cleared his party stand and said the BJP was never against the issue, the party have also been part of resolutions passed in the legislative assembly and council in its support. The delegation which is scheduled to meet PM Modi also includes a BJP representative, Sushil Modi wrote.
In an another tweet, Sushil Modi said BJP’s Gopinath Munde had presented the party’s side in Parliament in favour of the caste census in 2011. He also tweeted that that the last time a caste-based count took place was in 1931, under British rule, when Bihar, Jharkhand and Odisha were one entity.
The comments come as Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, the Leader of Opposition in Bihar Legislative Assembly, Tejashwi Yadav and leaders from 10 political parties are scheduled to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi to demand a caste-based census at 11:00 am on Monday. The meeting is underway.
Sushil Modi’s comments comes weeks after the government in Parliament had denied to carry out caste-based and also comes just months before the Assembly elections scheduled in several states next year, including Uttar Pradesh, which remains divided deeply along caste lines.
Not just the JDU chief Nitish Kumar, several Bihar BJP leaders and opposition leaders across the country, cutting across party lines, had had been repeatedly demanding caste census, which has not happened in India since the British period.
It is also believed that the BJP have decided to give second thought to conducting of caste enumeration through national census amid mounting pressure from various parties.
Ahead of Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls, It is tricky call for the Narendra Modi government to conduct the caste census as the BJP comes to power after 14 years in the biggest state on the back of strong support from the OBCs. But, however, the BJP remains committed to its core upper-caste voter in Uttar Pradesh, especially at a time when the construction of the Ram Mandir is expected to be a major poll plank in the 2022 elections.
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