New Delhi: After years of political hesitation and delays, the Karnataka cabinet is set to discuss the long pending socio-economic and education survey report. The report, commonly referred to as the state’s caste census will be examined on Friday.
The Chief Minister’s Office and the Law Department have assured that the report, which was closed for over a year since it was submitted, is now listed for cabinet discussion. This report was framed by the Karnataka State Commission for Backward Classes (BC) and delivered to the Chief Minister in 2023 but was not been made public yet.
The decision of the Congress government to act on the report comes as part of a broader political approach to support outreach to Other Backward Classes (OBCs). At a recent Congress Working Committee meeting in Ahmedabad, Rahul Gandhi insisted state units prioritise OBC communities in their political messaging and welfare schemes. Additionally, the Congress aims to position itself as a pro-OBC party to counter the BJP’s influence within this demographic.
The caste census was originally commissioned in 2015 during Siddaramaiah’s earlier term as Chief Minister and was completed in 2017. However, worrying about the possible potential electoral backlash ahead of the 2018 Assembly elections, the Congress chose to delay the report. Successive administrations, including those led by H.D. Kumaraswamy, B.S. Yediyurappa, and Basavaraj Bommai, also kept the report under the cover.
