Opposition prods Nitish Kumar, as CM castes census net before RS, Presidential elections

Bihar’s main opposition parties have welcomed Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s May 27 all-party meeting to discuss the caste census. Ally BJP with ‘caste-census issue’ is put to the test as Kumar, a shrewd political player – at a time when the chemistry of the BJP-JDU alliance in Patna seems to intensify ahead of the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections and with room for shrewdness has been The political situation (or, restitution) and bargaining for presidential elections – opposition leaders argued that in view of the unanimously passed resolution by the Bihar legislature for a caste census, the state government had “powers to conduct a Bihar-specific caste census”. , even though the Center and the RSS-BJP oppose it.

“RJD is fighting for caste based census and we will stick to our stand. While (RJD leader) Tejashwi ji has been vocal on the matter, our party fully supported the resolution in the House. Recently, Tejashwi ji and CM Nitish ji also discussed the need for an all-party meeting. Let us see if BJP will now attend the all-party meeting and support caste census,” RJD leader Shivanand Tiwari told ET.

His reaction came when Kumar told media persons in Patna about the all-party meeting being proposed for May 27: “Many parties have agreed on the date. But we have all the parties to hold the meeting on a particular date.” There should be no problem as both the houses of the legislature in the state have passed resolutions in favor of caste census twice,” Kumar said.

When contacted, Dipankar Bhattacharya, general secretary of CPI-ML, said, “CPI-ML is one of the parties seeking caste-based census in the resolution passed by the Bihar Assembly. We were part of the delegation that met the PM for the same. While we will attend the all-party meeting, given the fact that the Bihar legislature has already passed a resolution, the state government may go ahead and conduct a caste census in the state, even though the Center and the BJP are now opposing caste. Select the option of – Census.”

AICC general secretary Tariq Anwar said, “Congress party’s Chintan Shivar and Udaipur announcement clearly articulated our party’s commitment to conduct caste census. Therefore, we support CM Nitish Kumar’s call for an all-party meeting and We will give our full support. For any further agitation on caste census. We hope the Chief Minister will stand on his words.

The opposition leaders also said that if the BJP tries to stop the pitch on the all-party, the opposition parties have enough numbers to neutralize the saffron party, provided the CM sticks to the matter. He points out that the RJD-Congress-Left alliance has around 110 MLAs in the Bihar Assembly as against the BJP’s 75, which gives a majority to Kumar’s 43-member JD(U). While the issue of Kumar’s ‘caste census’ should anger the BJP’s upper caste social base, it is as appropriate for Kumar’s OBC base as it is for the RJD and other opposition sections. A close watch is being kept on how the caste-census issue will ultimately be used in a season of scrutiny and bargaining of Bihar’s coalition politics.

Originally published at Pen 18