10-party delegation, led by Nitish Kumar, to meet PM Modi to discuss caste census

At 11:00 a.m. on Monday, a delegation of politicians from ten political parties, led by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Leader of the Opposition in the Bihar Legislative Assembly Tejashwi Yadav, will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi to demand a caste-based census.

"Caste-based Census would be not just for Bihar, people in the whole country will benefit from this," Janata Dal (United) supremo said, who arrived in the national capital on Sunday.

However, the Bihar unit of BJP is not sending its senior leaders not even the two deputy chief ministers or BJP state president Sanjay Jaiswal.

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Here's a list of leaders who will be at the meeting today:

Nitish Kumar- Chief Minister

Tejashwi Yadav - RJD

Vijay Kumar Choudhary - JD(U)

Janak Ram- BJP

Ajit Sharma- Congress

Mehboob Alam - CPI(ML)

Akhtarul Iman - AIMIM

Jitan Ram Manjhi - Hindustani Awam Morcha

Mukesh Sahni - Vikassheel Insaan Party

Suryakant Paswan- CPI

Ajay Kumar- CPI(M)

Nitish Kumar has said that “there is a countrywide sentiment in favour of a caste Census being conducted at least once. There should be no misgivings as such an exercise will be beneficial for all social groups”.

Nitish Kumar had sought an appointment with PM Modi after a request to the effect was made by leaders of the Bihar Grand Alliance, who pointed out that the state legislature has twice passed unanimous resolutions in favour of a caste Census.

Mukesh Sahni President of Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) and minister in Bihar government told ANI that caste-based census should be done in the country specially in Bihar and there are many small castes that are away from mainstream of development, if we have information about them then we will able to make better policy for them.

"I am a minister in Bihar for Animal and Fisheries Department and we are counting a number of animals to know how many horses, elephants, camels and other animals are there in our state. If you keep information about animals then why not keep information about humans," Sahni added.

The demand for cate-based census has been a longstanding one. Former Uttar Pradesh CM Akhilesh Yadav has also been demanding caste based census to bring out the population of different caste groups. Recently, NCP chief Sharad Pawar had also backed the demand for the caste-based census.

In July, in a written reply in the Lok Sabha, Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai had said that the government has decided as a 'policy not to enumerate caste-wise populations other than SCs and STs'.

(With inputs from agencies)