Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati on Friday said that her party would support the Central Government if it takes positive steps towards conducting a census of the Other Backward Classes(OBCs).

In a tweet, Mayawati said that BSP has consistently demanded a census of OBCs in the country. If the Centre takes any positive steps in this regard, her party will definitely support it both inside and outside the Parliament.

In July, the Union Home Ministry had told Parliament that it will not hold any caste-based census. The caste-wise data the next census would collate would only for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, it has announced which sparked a political debate.

In this regard, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar has recently written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking his appointment to discuss the caste-based census. Leaders from the states have also supported Kumar and stress the need for the caste-based census.

Leader of Opposition Tejashwi Yadav has said that Kumar should lead a delegation including the leaders from Opposition parties to meet PM Modi and discuss the matter. 

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It is being reported that Samajik Chetna Foundation Mandal Diwas will hand over a memorandum addressed to PM Modi for conducting caste census at all the divisional, district, and tehsil headquarters of the state on Saturday. Founder and Chief Trustee of the Foundation retired Justice Virendra Singh and Secretary Mahendra Kumar have said that a memorandum will be submitted everywhere at 11 am to get the OBC count in the 2021 general census.

After India got independence, the census reports have published noting the population of only Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, but not the other caste groups.  It was in 1931, that the countrywide exercise to count the population of all the caste groups was conducted. The data on castes was collected in 1941 but not published. 

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