After Nitish, Tejashwi writes letter to PM Modi demanding caste census

RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav on Friday wrote a letter to PM Modi demanding a caste census in 2021 for equitable distribution of reservation and other benefits to the OBC category.In his letter Yadav said that in 2019, then union home minister Rajnath Singh had assured of a caste census in 2021. “This was one of the reasons NDA got 39 out of 40 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar. Now people of Bihar have their hopes pinned on the central government,” he wrote.On August 4, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar had written a letter to the Prime Minister Modi requesting for a meeting with all party delegation from Bihar over the issue of caste census. On Monday, Kumar had told the media persons in Patna that he is yet to get a response from the PMO on his letter.

“This is an insult to the Bihar CM when being an NDA partner he is not getting time to meet the PM. Even the BJP members unanimously have twice supported the resolution on caste census in the Bihar assembly. It is a demand of all parties from Bihar,” Yadav told media persons in Patna on Friday.In February 2019 and 2020, Bihar assembly passed a resolution for the caste-based census in 2021.Yadav further said that if the political parties don’t get time from the PM, they should come together for a protest at Jantar Mantar in Delhi. He also said that the Bihar government in that case should carry out its own caste-based census on the lines of the Karnataka government in 2018. The issue of caste based census is gaining traction in political circles of Bihar as a number of parties from these two states consider OBCs as their vote bank.