“It’s a miracle that now the Congress party wants a caste census.”
Hardoi (Uttar Pradesh):
Akhiles Yadav’s anger towards the Congress party hasn’t seemed to ebb. The Samajwadi Party chief who has been severely critical of the Congress after the grand old party and the SP failed to stitch an alliance for the Madhya Pradesh assembly polls.
On Friday while speaking to the media in Hardoi the SP Chief took on the Congress over its recent support to the Caste based census.
“It is the same Congress party that did not give the numbers of the caste census earlier. Now everyone knows that until and unless you don’t have the support of the backward castes and tribes, you won’t succeed,” said Akhilesh Yadav.
“It’s a miracle that now the Congress party wants a caste census. Congress party is now aware that the vote they were searching for is not with them anymore,” he added.
Earlier on Friday, Akhilesh Yadav continued his attack on the Congress for what he alleged was a betrayal said if this confusion prevails, the INDIA alliance would never be able to defeat the BJP.
“If Congress didn’t want to give seats (in MP), then they should have said it before. Today, SP is fighting only on seats where it has its own organisation. Now after Madhya Pradesh, I know that the INDIA alliance is for the (parliamentary) elections at the national level. If Congress continues to behave like this, then who will stand with them? If we will fight against the BJP with confusion in our minds, then we won’t succeed,” said Akhilesh Yadav.
The Congress has been championing the caste census with an assurance that such a census would be carried out in states that the Congress forms the government.
This follows the release of Caste Survey data by the Bihar government with figures that may have ramifications for the Lok Sabha polls next year, showing that Other Backward Castes (OBC) and Extremely Backward Classes (EBC) together account for 63 per cent of the state’s population.
According to the data, Scheduled Castes make up 19.65 per cent and the Scheduled Tribes 1.68 per cent of the population of Bihar. The data also said that the Hindus comprise 81.99 per cent of the population, Muslims 17.7 per cent, Christians 0.05 per cent, Sikhs 0.01 per cent, Buddhists 0.08 per cent and other religions 0.12 per cent.
The data said that Yadavs, the OBC group to which Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav belongs, is the largest and accounts for 14.27 per cent of the state’s population. Kushwaha and Kurmi communities form 4.27 per cent and 2.87 per cent of the population, the caste survey said. The total population of Bihar is more than 13 crore.
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