Tejashwi's swipe at BJP after ‘caste census’ consensus in Bihar: 'Isn't it amazing!'

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar chaired an all-party meeting and agreed to conduct a state-specific 'caste census'.

Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav on Thursday targeted the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over its stand on the caste-based census, a day after it was decided at an all-party meeting in Bihar to conduct a caste-wise enumeration of the state's population in a timebound manner. In a series of tweets, Tejashwi Yadav said that the “historic decision” in favour of caste-based counting of Bihar's population was taken after “public pressure and a long struggle by ideological parties”.

RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav (HT)

“A historic decision to conduct caste-based census in Bihar has been taken," the leader of the opposition in the Bihar Legislative Assembly tweeted in Hindi.

"After public pressure and a long struggle by ideological parties in favour of it, it was unanimously decided in the meeting yesterday that soon it will be approved to conduct a caste census of all religions within the stipulated time frame,” he wrote.

Referring to the Socio-Economic and Caste Census (SECC) 2011, Yadav said that RJD workers held “dharnas and demonstrations” after the BJP-led central government did not make the report public. SECC 2011 was conducted to identify Indian households living below the poverty line (BPL) that would get various entitlements.

In December last year, the central government told the Supreme Court that the SECC 2011 was not made public as it was found to be “flawed” and was "bound to mislead".

“We announced to agitate after giving them an ultimatum. Eventually, the BJP was compelled and it had to stand by our idea and support it in Bihar. But the BJP is against the caste-based census in other states and in the country. Isn't it amazing!” he added.