Rajasthan Elections: After Bihar released caste survey data, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot announced the state will conduct a caste survey, as the state prepares to go to polls later this year.
The issue was discussed on Friday at a core committee meeting of the Rajasthan Pradesh Congress Committee (RPCC) held at the party’s war room in Jaipur, which was attended by Gehlot, Congress in-charge for Rajasthan Sukhjinder Randhawa, RPCC president Govind Singh Dotasra and other leaders.
“The Rajasthan government will also conduct a caste survey like the one held in Bihar,” Gehlot told reporters on Friday after the meeting.
He said Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s concept of caste survey and participation in proportion to the population would be furthered in the state. “Therefore, we have decided that keeping in mind the mandate of the party, the Rajasthan government should declare this campaign,” he said.
“There are various castes within the country…People of various religions live here. Different castes do different jobs. If we know how much population of which caste is there, we can know what plans we have to make for them. It will be easier for us to prepare schemes caste-wise,” he said, as quoted by PTI.
Randhawa said discussions on yatra on Eastern Rajasthan Canal Project (ERCP) issue were also held in the meeting, apart from the caste-based survey.
Meanwhile, Rajasthan Congress president Dotasra announced that the slogan of the Congress’ election campaign will be – ‘Kaam Kiya Dil Se, Congress Fir Se’.
Bihar caste survey data
The Nitish Kumar-led Bihar government on October 2, on the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti, released the caste survey which revealed that Other Backward Classes (OBCs) and Extremely Backward Classes (EBCs) constitute more than 63% of the population of Bihar. Bihar’s current population, according to the survey, is 13,07,25,310, of which OBCs are 3,54,63,936 (27%) and EBCs are 4,70,80,514 (36%).
The so-called “forward” castes or “General” category is only 15.5% of the population, the survey data, which were released by the state Development Commissioner Vivek Singh, showed.