Congress Working Committee To Meet Tomorrow As Caste Census Announcement Leaves Congress Scrambling For Credit Ahead Of Bihar Elections

A Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting is set for Friday (2 May) in light of the recent Cabinet approval to caste enumeration in the next census, The Indian Express reported.

This is because caste census has been a long-standing demand of Congress, but with the Centre's approval of it, the party is scrambling to regain control of the narrative in its favour.

Owing to the party insiders, the Indian Express says that the government’s move has stolen a key poll plank. For years, the Congress has positioned itself as the torchbearer of social justice, pushing for a caste census to address historical inequities and to woo the Other Backward Classes (OBCs), a demographic that has increasingly shifted towards the BJP since the Mandal era.

After the announcement of the caste census by the Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, Congress’s top leadership, including Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi, are trying to “take the credit” for the upcoming caste census.

Several BJP leaders, including Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and his cabinet colleague Chirag Paswan of the Lok Janshakti Party, have pushed back against the Congress's attempt to take credit.

Rahul Gandhi called the Centre’s announcement his vision and the “first step” towards a new development paradigm while demanding clarity on the timeline, budget, and the contentious 50 per cent cap on reservations.

He also pointed to Telangana’s Congress-led caste survey as a model for transparency and detail, urging the national exercise to adopt similar standards.

The caste census announcement can have far-reaching implications for the Congress party, as only a few months remain before the Bihar elections, where OBC voters are decisive in numbers. In 2027, Uttar Pradesh will also hold elections, a hub of OBC voters.

The political calculus is clear: as the BJP seeks to broaden its social justice credentials, the Congress faces a renewed challenge to retain ownership of an agenda it helped bring to the national forefront.