Patna. Apr 18 (IANS): A day after Rahul Gandhi demanded caste-based census in the country, Lalan Singh, the JD(U) president, said the move of the Congress "is a right step in the direction of social justice".

In a tweet, Lalan Singh said: "Rahul Gandhi Ji and Congress party have supported the caste based census. It is a good step in the direction of social justice."

"Our leader CM Nitish Kumar has been demanding for the caste based census in the country for years. The 11 MPs of JD-U met with union home minister Amit Shah and requested him for the caste based census but he denied. Nitish Kumar finally decided to conduct a caste based census in Bihar. The BJP leaders were deliberately delaying it. As our chief minister was firm on it, BJP was forced to step down from its stand," Singh further tweeted.

"The prime minister has included many public interest projects into the national project. Caste based census is also a public interest project and include it in national projects so that extremely backward caste, Dalit, backward class and upper castes will get the share in the government," he said.