Bihar caste survey: Nitish, Tejashwi talk of dedicated policies for weaker sections, Lalu sees realisation of JP’s ‘Total Revolution’

CM Nitish Kumar congratulated the entire team involved in the caste survey process and said: “Resolution on caste-based survey was passed in the Bihar legislature through consensus. Nine political parties had taken a call in the Bihar Assembly on the state government bearing expenses of the caste survey. The survey has not only considered one’s caste but also one’s economic status, which would help us devise further policies and plans for the development of all classes.”

Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav said the state government had to conduct a caste-based survey only after the Centre denied the demand of Bihar parties to conduct a nationwide survey. “There had been an urgent need to know which section of society had been doing. Now that the Bihar survey report is out, we know what the government needs to do further. We would plan policies accordingly to take sundry benefits to all who need it.”

“The caste survey was a dream of Sharad Yadav, Lalu Prasad and Nitish Kumar. Bihar has become a witness to a historic day with the release of a caste survey report on Monday,” Tejashwi added, and accused BJP leadership of obstructing the survey, though unsuccessfully.

Lalu Prasad posted on X: “With the release of the caste survey report, JP’s dream of ‘total revolution’ would be realised. So long as the deprived section of society is not brought to the mainstream, real development cannot take place.”

BJP Rajya Sabha MP Sushil Kumar Modi refuted the allegations of Tejashwi and said, “The BJP has been part of the unanimous Resolution in the legislature and was also part of a 10-party delegation headed by CM Nitish Kumar to meet the PM. Now that the caste survey report is out, we are studying it closely.”

BJP state president Samrat Choudhary said: “The Nitish Kumar government released the caste survey report only after we applied constant pressure on them. We deserve equal credit for it”.

Other Backward Classes (OBCs) and Extremely Backward Classes (EBCs) constitute more than 63 per cent of the population of Bihar, according to the findings of the caste survey. Bihar’s current population, according to the census, is 13,07,25,310, of which OBCs are 3,54,63,936 (27 per cent) and EBCs are 4,70,80,514 (36 per cent). The “forward” castes or “general” category is only 15.5 per cent of the population.