Bihar leaders welcome Modi government’s move of caste enumeration to be included in next Census-OxBig News Network

File picture of Bihar CM Nitish Kumar.
| Photo Credit: PTI

With the Central government on Wednesday (April 30, 2025) announcing that caste enumeration will be part of the next Census exercise, leaders in Bihar “welcomed” the move and thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the “historic” decision. The Opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), however, said it was one of the party’s long-pending demands and there was “still a lot of work to be done”.

Also Read | Caste enumeration to be part of next Census: Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw

In 2022, Bihar’s then Mahagathbandhan or Grand Alliance government that the RJD was part of, announced a caste survey in the State and released the results in October 2023. Based on the report, the government had raised reservation in Bihar to 65% from 50% in educational institutions and government jobs, but the hike was quashed by the Patna High Court. Now in the Opposition, the RJD has been targeting the government for failing to include the increase in reservation in the Ninth Schedule of the Constitution.

Also Read | Caste enumeration in census: Rahul Gandhi says ‘We support decision but want timeline of implementation’

On Wednesday (April 30, 2025), Bihar Chief Minister and Janata Dal (United) leader Nitish Kumar posed on X: “The Central government’s decision to hold caste census is a welcome move. This has been our old demand. We are happy that the Centre has taken the decision as it will reveal the population of different caste groups and will help in chalking out plans and policies for their growth and development. This will accelerate growth of the country.” He further “welcomed and thanked” Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the caste census announcement.

Also Read | Congress and allies opposed the caste census for decades while in power: Amit Shah

Deputy Chief Minister and senior BJP leader Samrat Choudhary too welcomed the move and thanked the Prime Minister. “I would like to especially thank Modiji for the decision to include caste enumeration in the next Census. The whole country and Bihar expresses the same to the Prime Minister,” Mr. Choudhary said in a post on social media. National general secretary of the BJP’s Other Backward Class (OBC) front, Nikhil Anand, said: “… Modiji has proved that he is the biggest well-wisher and messiah of the OBC community. He has undertaken the historic work of bringing the OBC community into the country’s mainstream… The Modi era will be recorded in history books as the golden era of OBCs”.

RJD chief Lalu Prasad, meanwhile, sought to remind people that they have been demanding a nationwide caste census for a long time. “The views put forward by socialists like me 30 years ago, on issues like reservation, caste census, equality and fraternity, are being followed by others after decades. This [the decision to hold caste census] itself is a befitting reply to those who called us casteist when we demanded caste census. There is still a lot of work to be done… En Sanghayion ko hamarae agenda per nachate rahenge [We will make the followers of RSS dance to our agenda],” said Mr. Prasad in a post on social media.

“But reform will not happen in the country only by conducting caste census. Reform will happen through the work done by the government based on results of the census”, said Jan Suraaj Party founder Prashant Kishor. “One does not become an intellectual by buying books… he should read the books and understand them.”