Congress has raised the demand to include an OBC column in the caste census. Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said that the model of caste census conducted in Bihar and Telangana should be implemented. He said that only a national caste census based on that basis will yield accurate results and strengthen the basis for reservation. Jairam Ramesh said that there is still time, as the caste census has only begun in Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand, and some areas of Himachal Pradesh. Therefore, there is still time for improvements. Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge have written a letter to PM Narendra Modi in this regard.
Congress MP Jairam Ramesh said that the Bihar caste census survey was released on October 2, 2023. Following this, the Telangana survey was also released in February 2025. We demand that the caste census be conducted in the same manner and the same methodology should be used. Rahul Gandhi and Kharge have demanded that the current plan be scrapped and a census be conducted based on the Bihar-Telangana model. They stated that they demand that a final decision be made by calling an all-party meeting. Experts may also be consulted. They hope that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will not ignore Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge’s letter.
It is noteworthy that several parties and activists, including the Congress, have stated that the national caste census does not include an OBC column. Furthermore, the caste column has been left blank, with people filling in their own names. In this scenario, registering different surnames across the country as castes will result in millions of castes, preventing accurate data from being presented. The opposition wants the OBC column to be similar to the SC and ST, and that castes should also be assigned a set of options. However, the government has not yet responded to the allegations.