EXPLAINER
The story so far: On Thursday, the Bihar Cabinet approved a proposal to carry out a caste-based ‘count’ in the State. Stopping short of calling it a census, the Janata Dal (United) government, which is an ally of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), said the State would spend its own resources for the exercise. The BJP at the Centre has been against holding a caste census, but Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and the JD(U) had been pushing for it. All political parties of Bihar, including the State BJP, had proposed conducting a caste count.