Bihar assembly’s five-day winter session, which will be the first sitting of the House since the results of the caste survey were released this month, will commence on November 6.
A notification for the session was issued on Monday days after chief minister Nitish Kumar said the educational and social-economic data of the survey would be tabled in the House. Kumar evaded a question on whether the ambit of reservation would be extended. Kumar added he would not comment before the findings of the survey were tabled in the House. “We will listen to all and them decide what to do next. Whatever the government has to do will be done, but I cannot comment on that beforehand.”
The survey results were released on October 2 following the completion of an exercise, which can potentially upend heartland politics and propel caste into the core of the discourse ahead of the 2024 national polls.
The exercise was expected to trigger another political churn that many called the second Mandal moment. The opposition Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance, which includes Bihar’s ruling Rashtriya Janata Dal and Janata Dal (United), has pushed for a nationwide caste census to counter the Bharatiya Janata Party’s mobilisation of less-dominant backward and Dalit groups into a broader Hindu umbrella.
{{/usCountry}}The exercise was expected to trigger another political churn that many called the second Mandal moment. The opposition Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance, which includes Bihar’s ruling Rashtriya Janata Dal and Janata Dal (United), has pushed for a nationwide caste census to counter the Bharatiya Janata Party’s mobilisation of less-dominant backward and Dalit groups into a broader Hindu umbrella.
{{/usCountry}}The BJP has included marginalised caste leaders into its ranks, countering an earlier perception that the party was primarily focused on its traditional vote base, upper castes.
Bihar’s ruling alliance was expected to propose an increase in the quota for backward castes in jobs and educational institutions proportionate to their population as per findings in the survey.
The landmark survey enumerated in a physical government headcount all castes for the first time since Independence and showed backward communities comprise nearly two-thirds of Bihar’s population.
India’s decennial census only counts the Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST).
The survey showed that extremely backward communities (ECB) comprising 112 castes constituted 36.01% of the population, and backward castes (30 communities) made up another 27.12%. Together, other backward classes (OBC), the umbrella group consisting of backward castes and EBCs in the state, is 63.13%. SC form 19.65% and ST 1.68%.