Opposition's allegation on caste census is false, baseless: Tejashwi Yadav

Patna, Oct 7 (IANS) Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav on Saturday said that the allegations leveled against the state government over the recently released cast based census is completely false and baseless.

“The caste based census was conducted under the leadership of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and the allegations leveled by the opposition are completely false and baseless. Had the state government tinkered with figures, then the Chief Minister would have done it with his own caste, Kurmi. The Kurmi caste is not higher in number. The population of Yadav has increased as shown in the census,” the Deputy Chief Minister said.

Taking a dig at the PM Modi-led government, Tejashwi Yadav said that the Bihar government has completed the caste based census this year.

“Last time the census was undertaken in 1931. Since then, no state or center has achieved such a thing. The PM Modi-led government has been in the Centre for last nine and half years and it is the responsibility of the Centre to conduct a caste census in the country. Centre has the right to conduct a census and if it adds a column of caste, it becomes a caste based census. The census was scheduled in 2021 but the Centre has not conducted it in the country even in 2023.”

Reacting on the statement of JP Nadda on regional parties, Tejashwi Yadav claimed that he is talking like a “Gunda”.

“He said that the regional parties will be finished in the country. Look at his statement and language. It is because of the states that Centre exists. Without state, how can the Centre be possible? The regional parties knows more about their respective states than the Centre,” the Deputy Chief Minister said.