BJP Denounces Bihar Caste Survey as "Sham" to Harm Extremely Backward Castes

The Grand Alliance administration, headed by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, carried out a caste-based survey in Bihar on Sunday, which the BJP denounced as a "sham" that was meant to harm the Extremely Backward Castes (EBC).

"I've come here to inform the Bihar EBC and Other Backward Castes (OBC) communities that this survey is fraudulent. Union Home Minister Amit Shah said at a public gathering in Muzaffarpur, "We had supported it, but we did not know that the numbers of the Yadavs and Muslims would be inflated under pressure from Lalu Prasad (RJD chief) to do injustice to the EBC."

Shah challenged the INDI Alliance, the BJP's moniker for the INDIA group, to choose an EBC member as Bihar's chief minister, citing their claim that "jiski jitni aabadi, uski utni hissedari (share as per the population of castes)".

"The poll indicates that the EBC has the largest numbers. Will you declare that the chief minister of the INDI Alliance in Bihar will belong to this group? Lalu ought to respond to this. Shah said, "My pals Lalu and Nitish have always engaged in minority appeasement.

There were 215 castes total in the census. With 13.07 crore people, was estimated that 36.02 percent of the population was EBC, 27.13 percent was OBC, 19.65 percent was Scheduled Castes (SC), 15.52 percent was General Category Caste, and 1.68 percent was Scheduled Tribe (ST). According to the survey, the other religious groups were made up of different faiths, with Muslims making up 17.70 percent and Hindus making up 81.99 percent.

The state legislature will get the second portion of the survey report, which contains socioeconomic information on the respondents, when the winter session starts on Monday.

The BJP only grudgingly backed the survey, presumably to avoid drawing attention to itself from other castes, particularly the SC, OBC, and EBC. But ever since the statistics were made public on October 2, Nitish, Lalu, and his deputy chief minister son Tejashwi Prasad Yadav have made vague references to reviewing reservations in light of the data.

The study is seen as a brilliant move by Nitish to use caste identities against the BJP's platform of ultra-nationalism, religious polarization, and communalism.

Since the release of the study, a number of BJP politicians have accused the survey's method and caste population of being flawed; nevertheless, the survey itself was not criticized until the Union Home Minister stated so.

Claiming to have attempted to portray itself as the protector of the lower castes, Shah urged the populace not to be duped by the caste-based poll.

"This survey was decided upon during the BJP's tenure in the Nitish administration. The BJP made the choice. But the study also showed a decline in the number of EBC and OBC people and a rise in Yadav and Muslim people, he added.