Bihar Congress: In an attempt to gain political ground in Bihar, Congress is allegedly banking on upper castes as the party appointed news district chiefs -- the majority of them belonging to this category. According to reports, the grand old party is looking to intrude into BJP's core vote bank as upper castes are considered to be the latter's traditional voters in the state.
The party has appointed 12 district presidents belonging to the Bhumihar caste, eight from Brahmins and six Rajputs. With this, 26 out of the 38 districts of Bihar have upper caste leaders in the Congress party.
List issued from Cong gen secy Venugopal'soffice
Meanwhile, the party has given five posts to Muslims, four to the Yadav community and three are Dalits. The list was issued from the office of the Congress national general secretary, KC Venugopal on Wednesday, May 24.
It is also being speculated that this could be a plan of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to challenge the BJP and cut its vote bank through the parties of his alliance, sources added.
Caste survey in Bihar to remain suspended
Meanwhile, the caste survey in Bihar will remain suspended as the Supreme Court has declined to stay the Patna High Court's interim order saying it will have to examine whether the state government was carrying out a census in the garb of the survey.
The first round of caste survey in Bihar was conducted between January 7 and 21. The second round started on April 15 and was supposed to continue till May 15.
A bench of justices Abhay S Oka and Rajesh Bindal said the high court has recorded prima facie findings and we will have to decide whether it is merely a survey or a census. Justice Bindal orally remarked during the hearing that a lot of documents show the exercise is census only.
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Caste-based survey is a constitutional mandate: Bihar govt
In an appeal filed before the top court against the May 4 order of the high court, the Bihar government had said the stay will adversely affect the entire exercise. The government also said the collection of caste-based data is a constitutional mandate under Articles 15 and 16 of the Constitution.
Notably, Article 15 of the Constitution says the State shall not discriminate against any citizen on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth or any of them, while Article 16 states there shall be equality of opportunity for all citizens in matters relating to employment or appointment to any office under the State.
(With inputs from agencies)
