New Delhi, Aug 8 (IANS): Politics on the caste census has escalated after the regional parties demanded that caste should be included in the census. Even the BJP ally, Janata Dal United is also pushing for the caste-based census in the country.

Shakiluzzaman Ansari, former OBC commission member said, "The country should know what is the population of the OBC in the country and what is their social status so that welfare schemes may be diverted towards that particular community."

Though Nitish is an ally of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) but he said last week during his visit to Delhi, "Our job is to put forth our views, it is up to the Centre to do or not to do the caste census, and I do not think that one caste will like and another will not. It is in everyone's interest."

He further said that this will not bring any rift or tension in the society. There will be happiness. People will be benefited from the schemes, and such a census "happened under British rule too."

Not only the JDU, other political parties such as the RJD, the Samajwadi Party and the DMK are also demanding caste-based census. RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav had raised the issue of the caste census and had even met Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who has also supported the demand for the caste-based census in the country.

Ansari alleges that, "The UPA government after direction from the OBC commission did a caste survey but data analysis was not published by the NDA government citing errors."

In 2011, Socio Economic and Caste Census conducted by the Registrar General of India had come out with 46,73,034 categories of caste, sub-caste, but in July 2015, the Government of India stated that errors were found and some of them have been rectified since then.

The first caste census was conducted in India in 1881 after Britishers took over India and the last census based on caste was carried out in 1931.