Mumbai, May 1 || The Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Pawar) on Thursday welcomed the Central government's landmark decision to include caste-based enumeration in the upcoming national census and said that it was possible due to the INDIA bloc's persistent demands for this.
The Centre declared on Wednesday that a caste census would be conducted along with the next population census, a nationwide exercise administered at the central level. The decision was taken during a high-level meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs (CCPA), chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
NCP(SP) leader and Member of Parliament (MP) Supriya Sule said, "It was possible because it was the INDIA bloc that had demanded this. Whether it was Rahul Gandhi, Akhilesh Yadav, Amol Kolhe, or even myself -- we all raised this demand many times, both in Parliament and on the streets through protests."
"Our demand has now been fulfilled. It may have taken time, but better late than never," she said.
The announcement triggered a wave of reactions from across the political spectrum.
Congress MP and Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi stated that the decision was a reflection of the Opposition's consistent pressure on the Modi government to commit to social justice.
LoP Gandhi asserted that the government had finally yielded to the Congress-led Opposition's developmental agenda.
Echoing similar sentiments, the Samajwadi Party and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) reiterated that the BJP-led government had conceded to their long-standing demands.