"Process of caste survey has started in Rajasthan":Bhanwar Jitendra Singh

New Delhi [India], October 8 : Congress leader Bhanwar Jitendra Singh on Sunday said that his party is in favour of conducting a caste census in Rajasthan.
"In the Udaipur declaration and the CWC meeting, we have decided that the Congress party is in favour of caste-based census...," Singh said.
Notably, the Congress party in May last year adopted the Udaipur Declaration on the final day of the three-day Chitan Shivir in which it demanded that caste census report should be made public, pressed for an MSP guarantee act .
"Orders have been given, and the process has started in Rajasthan... There should be no doubt about it..." Singh said that process of caste survey has started in Rajasthan.
It is worth mentioning that the 'Mahagathbandhan' government in Bihar, which is an alliance of Janata Dal-United (JDU) and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), along with other parties, is also a partner in the INDIA bloc, formed to take on the BJP in the Lok Sabha polls in 2024.
Earlier, the Bihar government released caste survey data, with the figures that have ramifications for the Lok Sabha polls next year, showing that Other Backward Caste (OBC) and Extremely Backward Class (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 the state.
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.
Bhumihars constitute 2.86 per cent of the population, Brahmins 3.66 per cent, Kurmis 2.87 per cent, and Musahars 3 per cent.
The total population of Bihar is more than 13 crore.
Meanwhile, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has announced that the state will conduct a caste-based census like done in Bihar.
"Congress leader Rahul Gandhi made the caste census system in the Raipur session of Congress, and we will do it here on the basis of the same. Rajasthan government will also conduct a caste census like Bihar. We will take the concept that there should be participation of the people as per their population. Instructions will be given to conducting caste-based census on the lines of Bihar," CM Gehlot said.
Several of the Bharatiya Janata Party have criticized the Bihar's government's move to conduct the survey.
Bihar Leader of Opposition and BJP leader Vijay Kumar Sinha hit out at the Bihar government over the caste-based survey report and said that the survey has been done to create tension in the state.