After the massive drubbing of the Bharatiya Janata Party in Bihar elections and the alleged suicide of Dalit PhD scholar V Rohith in Hyderabad University, the party is on course correction.
The party's OBC Morcha met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and demanded for the release of caste census. The Morcha also wanted quota seats in government jobs to be filled.
The meeting attended by BJP President Amit Shah, Scheduled Caste Morcha, Scheduled Tribe Morcha, Youth Morcha lasted for nearly two hours on Sunday.
There have been murmurs among the BJP's OBC leaders after the drubbing in Bihar.
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat purported comments on quota review during Bihar polls had sparked a huge row. Both Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and his ally and RJD supremo Lalu Prasad encashed on the remark and mobilised the backward class.
Lalu had demanded the release of the caste census figures and said the data would reveal the real numbers of Scheduled Castes and Schedule Tribes, which he claimed had increased three times over the years.
The last caste census happened in 1931 during the British rule. The Congress-led UPA had agreed for caste census but UPA 2 never released it. The BJP-led NDA also released figures pertaining to only socio-economic indicators not caste break-up. The NDA did not release the caste census claiming discrepancies in the data collected.
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