Divided Congress agrees to caste census

The issue came up for discussion at the Congress Core Group meeting today which was attended by party president Sonia Gandhi who returned from the US last night.

While leaders like M Veerappa Moily and Digvijay Singh have openly backed a caste census,others,including Defence Minister A K Antony,are said to have expressed reservations. Union Minister Ajay Maken wrote to young MPs seeking to bring them together to oppose the move.

At the end of the acrimonious debate,the view in the Congress was that having already lost out in the Hindi heartland in the post-Mandal phase,the party might stand to lose further ground among OBCs if it was seen to be opposing their enumeration.

Last week,the BJP had said that caste should be canvassed in such a manner and at such stage that it does not affect the integrity of the head count. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee,who heads the Group of Ministers on this issue,had written to political parties eliciting their views.

While the BJPs well-crafted reply appeared to re-iterate its support for a caste census as it had spelt out in the Lok Sabha earlier party strategists said they had left the door open.