The Wire Staff 
New Delhi: Shortly after Bihar released its caste survey data, the Congress party in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh have announced their intention to make caste surveys a key electoral issue ahead of the upcoming elections in both the states.
The Ashok Gelhot-led Congress government on Saturday (October 7) ordered a caste-based survey in Rajasthan to find out the socio-economic status of different sections of society to be conducted with the state government’s own resources.
Gehlot said that though the Census could only be conducted by the Union government, the state government was within its rights to take up the survey of families in which their economic condition would also be revealed. “It is a major decision to which our party is committed. We will take it forward,” he told the Hindu.
The collation of the caste data would enable the state government to prepare targeted schemes for different groups of people engaged in different forms of labour for livelihood, Gehlot added.
Since the model code of conduct will be enforced in Rajasthan ahead of the Assembly elections due in December, the release of the survey’s data may be subject to approval by the Election Commission, official sources told the Hindu.
Meanwhile, in Madhya Pradesh, where the Congress is not in power, the party’s central election committee on Saturday decided that conducting a caste survey in the state will be their main agenda.
Also read: Bihar Caste Survey: Can’t Stop Government From Acting on Data, Says SC
“Caste census is an important agenda of the Congress in Madhya Pradesh. Our main agenda is to provide justice to our OBC, SC and ST brothers and sisters. Kamal Nath ji and other colleagues of Madhya Pradesh Congress told in the meeting that caste census will be the primary agenda of the Congress,” senior Congress leader Randeep Surjewala told the Hindustan Times.
The caste survey was launched in Bihar in January this year and was halted temporarily in May by the Patna high court. In August, the high court said the exercise was ‘perfectly valid’ and initiated with due competence.
Bihar’s caste survey has revealed that extremely backward classes (EBC) constituted 36.01% of the state’s population, while other backward classes (OBC) contributed an additional 27.12%. Another 20% belong to Scheduled Castes (SC) and 1.6% to Scheduled Tribes (ST) while the general category accounts for around 15%, the data showed.
The caste census has become a political issue, with the INDIA bloc of opposition parties pressuring the Union government to conduct such an exercise at the national level. While the Congress-led UPA government conducted a Socio-Economic and Caste Census (SECC) in 2011-12, the data was never released.