Telangana congress leader assures caste census if voted to power at Centre

Senior Congress leader and former MP V Hanumantha Rao said that Congress was the only party in the state that cared for the backward communities and would conduct a caste census after forming its government at the Centre, Deccan Chronicle (DC) reported.

The Congress leader was speaking with the press in Husnabad constituency of Karimnagar district, with another former MP Ponnam Prabhakar and former MLA A Praveen Reddy also present. Hanumantha Rao said that all the political parties were the votes of BC communities after Rahul Gandhi announced at the Khammam meeting that the Congress would conduct a caste census if voted to power.

The leader said that Sonia Gandhi gave Telangana state after 1,200 youth sacrificed their lives and not because of Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) chief K Chandrashekhar Rao (KCR).

Attacking the BJP and BRS, Rao said that the KCR regime was trying to silence the voice of the Congress and people's organisations for questioning their failures over the years. People of Telangana will teach BRS a lesson in the upcoming elections, Rao added.

He also appealed to party workers to attend Sonia Gandhi's meeting in the state in large numbers, which is scheduled to be held at Thukkuguda and make it a huge success. Rao also said that just like the Congress has done in Karnataka, the party will fulfil all its promises in the state after forming the government in the state, the DC report said.

Demand for fresh census

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi raised the demand to conduct a fresh caste census while also calling to remove the cap of 50 per cent on reservations. Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge has written to PM Modi demanding that the census be conducted "immediately".

What is caste census?

As the name suggests, it refers to including caste-based data of India's population in the census exercise. India has counted and published caste data from 1951 to 2011 for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes only.

Has the caste census been conducted earlier?

The last caste census was conducted in 1931. This data became the basis for quota caps under the Mandal formula. Caste data were collected for the 2011 census but it was never made public.