With the Bihar caste census, the Opposition feels that it has been handed over a self-propagating campaign that could fuel their campaign for the 2024 general elections, especially after Prime Minister Narendra Modi remarked during a public meeting in Chhattisgarh that the biggest community in the country is the “poor”.
It materially changes three things for the Opposition — provides them with an agenda that resonates with a significant section of the population, confronts Prime Minister Modi’s carefully cultivated image of being pro-Other Backward Classes (OBC) and reinvents caste-based politics in a way that will reinvigorate the parties born out of the Mandal movement.
The survey puts the combined OBC strength at 63%, which is 10% more than the estimates based on the last caste census done in 1931. The State government is also expected to provide the socio-economic profile of the caste groups.
