Sobhana K. Nair Amarnath Tewary NEW DELHI/PATNA
In yet another move that puts the BJP in Bihar on the defensive, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday said that his government would start work on a caste-based census in the State and as a first step, called for an all-party meeting on May 27.
Last October, in a submission to the Supreme Court, the Narendra Modi government at the Centre ruled out the possibility of holding a nation-wide caste census.
“We will call an all-party meeting to know their views on caste-based census and have spoken to some parties to conduct the meeting on May 27, but are still waiting for some of them to respond. The proposal of an all-party meeting will go to the State Cabinet and then we will start work on conducting a caste-based census,” Mr. Kumar said in Patna.
When Deputy Chief Minister Tarkishore Prasad, who was accompanying Mr. Kumar, was asked whether the BJP supported the idea, Mr. Prasad gave a non-committal reply. “We [BJP] will discuss it and consider various aspects (of it),” Mr. Prasad said.
A senior BJP leader said the government’s submission in the Supreme Court does not prohibit the State governments from carrying out the exercise. And in Bihar, he said, the party has very little room for manoeuvre if it does not go along with Mr. Kumar’s decision. It will stand isolated and will be branded as an anti-backward party in the State, which could be electorally fatal.
Mr. Kumar has been trying to claw his way back to the top since the November 2020 setback in the Bihar Assembly poll when the JD(U) with 43 seats was reduced to a junior partner to the BJP, which got 73 seats. The BJP, which is banking on a unified Hindu vote, continues to be uneasy with Mr. Kumar’s reassertion on caste census, which could fragment its vote bank.
Delayed reaction
Mr. Kumar is also now seen as taking it out on Union Steel Minister R.C.P. Singh for his proximity to the BJP. Party insiders claim that Mr. Singh, without nod from the Bihar Chief Minister, had agreed to settle for one Cabinet berth in July 2021 instead of four that the party had demanded after the 2019 Lok Sabha election. At that time, Mr. Kumar did not speak about it and in the delayed reaction, he is now withholding the announcement of a JD(U) candidate for the Rajya Sabha election due in June. If Mr. Singh fails to return to the Upper House, he will have to resign from the Cabinet, which would mark the JD(U)’s formal exit from government at the Centre.
Both the decisions are interconnected in Mr. Kumar’s bid to chart a fresh course for himself possibly away from the BJP-led NDA.
Sources in the JD(U) said that the entire top leadership of the party has been instructed to remain in Patna for the next three days.
“There could be some major political decision taken by top party leadership or some political upheaval in the next 72 hours in the State. We’re just keeping our fingers crossed,” a JD(U) MLA said requesting anonymity.
Efforts by Mr. Kumar over the past few weeks to bridge the distance between himself and the RJD have also given the BJP anxious moments.
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