Karnataka: CM Siddaramaiah to accept caste census report in Nov or Dec, claims credit for commissioning it
caste census report either in November or December, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said on Sunday.
“Our government was the first to conduct a caste census in the entire country. I had got the caste census with the objective of knowing the economic, social and economic status of each caste,” he said, speaking at an event in Bengaluru.
State Backward Classes Commission Chairman K Jayaprakash Hegde told ET early this month that the CM had asked for submission of the report in November.
The CM’s request to the Commission came a day after the Congress announced in Delhi that it favoured a nationwide caste census.
“The report is about the socially and educationally backward communities. The state government has been giving reservations based on these criteria,” Hegde had said.
Siddaramaiah, who was present at the recent Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting which decided to ask all party regimes in states to conduct caste census to determine the backwardness of communities, has blamed JDS leader HD Kumaraswamy for delay in the acceptance of the report.
Independent political watchers think the CM is keen to accept the report closer to the Lok Sabha polls.
They say the belief that OBCs are the dominant segment in Karnataka may have emboldened Siddaramaiah to strategically use the census report ahead of the polls.
Opposition BJP, on the other hand, has taken the stand that the caste survey is a conspiracy by the Congress to divide Hindus on caste lines. Former BJP CM Basavaraj Bommai had urged Siddaramaiah to weigh the pros and cons before making the caste census report public.
