The BJP - under attack from the opposition on the caste census issue, with the national election months away - is prepping an Other Backward Classes outreach initiative, sources told NDTV Thursday. Top leaders, including President JP Nadda and National General Secretary BL Santosh, and union ministers Amit Shah and Nitin Gadkari met in Delhi last week to chalk out the details. Forty leaders from 10 states, including Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, were also present at the meeting.
The opposition's call for a caste census is one of the biggest issues this election season, and the BJP - which in the past has baulked on committing itself either way - is now being pressed for an answer.
Adding to the pressure is the fact that several of its allies including the Apna Dal (Sonelal), Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party, NISHAD party and Hindustani Awam Morcha Secular, have backed this issue.
Pressure on the party to accede to the demand was also ramped up after Bihar conducted its own survey in August (a process the Supreme Court refused to stop), and said OBCs account for over 27 per cent of the state's population and more than 33 per cent live in absolute poverty.
OBC and the Extremely Backward Classes add up to over 60 per cent of Bihar's population.
The report not only flagged the miserable plight of groups making up at least 40 per cent of India's population (according to a 2007 survey by the NSSO), but also stressed their electoral importance.
READ | "34% Earn Rs 6,000 Or Less": Bihar Survey Reveals Wealth, Education Data
Five states are voting this month - Madhya Pradesh (where the BJP is in power), Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan (ruled by the Congress), Telangana (the Bharat Rashtra Samithi stronghold) and Mizoram.
In Telangana, OBCs (as a percentage of households in rural areas) account for over 57 per cent. In Chhattisgarh that number is 51.4. It is 46.8 in Rajasthan and 42.4 in Madhya Pradesh.
Sources said the Delhi meeting (and the Bihar report) has pushed the BJP into "action mode" to address the caste census issue; Amit Shah left for Chhattisgarh's Raipur the day after, where he said the BJP had never opposed the exercise and only wanted due diligence done before its conduct.
READ | Amid Opposition's Caste Census Push, Amit Shah Says BJP Never Opposed Idea
"We are a national party and don't indulge in vote-bank politics. We will take a decision after extensive discussions... but using the issue to win elections is not right. BJP has never opposed it..."
In Durg a day later, Prime Minister Narendra Modi accused the opposition of "trying to divide the country in the name of caste". He repeated the attack in Madhya Pradesh - hours after the Bihar government report's release - and said the opposition is "playing with the emotions of the poor".
READ | "Trying To Divide Country...": PM After Bihar Releases Caste Survey Report
The Prime Minister also raked up the issue in Telangana, where he told voters the ruling BRS and the opposition Congress (part of the three-cornered fight for the state) were all "anti-BC".
In effect, the BJP's top leaders are trying to take the sting out of the oppositions' attacks.
Party sources have also rolled out data of their own; data that indicates 85 per cent of the BJP's 303 MPs and 365 of its 1,358 MLAs are from OBC groups, as are 27 union ministers. The party's increasing vote-share from those groups was also flagged - from 19 per cent in 1996 to 44 in 2019.
The Congress - one of those pushing a caste census the hardest - has declared its position. The party has said it will conduct surveys in all states it wins this year and a national count if it wins the centre.
READ | "Congress Will Get It Done": Rahul Gandhi On Caste Survey In Madhya Pradesh
Party MP Rahul Gandhi - who in September attacked the centre with data that said only three of 90 high-ranking civil servants in the union government were from OBC groups - underlined the demand.
Mr Gandhi pointed to the Bihar report to call for OBC representation (in the government and in top positions) proportionate to population share. "Therefore, it is important to know caste statistics..."
Bihar, meanwhile, has moved swiftly after its report, with the Nitish Kumar government passing a proposal - which the BJP and Congress couldn't really oppose - to increase reservation to 65 per cent.
This is well over the Supreme Court's 50 per cent cap and, crucially, doesn't include the centre's 10 per cent for Economically Weaker Sections. The proposal now awaits the Bihar Governor's sign-off.
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