Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Wednesday promised to conduct a caste census in Uttar Pradesh if voted to power in the Assembly ele...
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Wednesday promised to conduct a caste census in Uttar Pradesh if voted to power in the Assembly elections scheduled to take place next year, PTI reported.
Yadav promised to ensure that the backward classes get their rights. He criticised the Centre for not undertaking the exercise.
“The BJP government at the Centre does not want to conduct caste census as it knows that backwards will demand their right and due respect after it,” Yadav claimed. “This is the biggest demand of backwards and Dalits.”
In August, Akhilesh Yadav had said that the caste census could be done in a short period of time, The New Indian Express reported.
“Today with the available technology, it [caste census] will not even take six months,” Yadav had said. “It can be done within three months or even less.”
He had also alleged that the BJP tried to create a divide between the backward classes in Uttar Pradesh, according to the newspaper
Political parties in other states such as Bihar, including Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United), have also been persuading the Centre to undertake a caste-based census. The JD(U) is an ally of the BJP’s.
India had last conducted an exercise to count the population of all caste groups in 1931....
