Patna, Aug 21 (IANS): The Bihar government on Saturday released the list of 11 members who will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi to discuss the issue of caste based census.

The delegation headed by chief minister Nitish Kumar will meet PM Narendra Modi on August 23 at 11 a.m. in New Delhi. Besides Nitish Kumar, one member of every political party has been included in the delegation.

Interestingly, Bihar unit of the BJP is not sending its senior leaders including two deputy chief ministers or BJP state president Sanjay Jaiswal. Janak Ram, the cabinet minister in the Nitish Kumar government will represent BJP Bihar unit in the delegation.

Besides them, Tejashwi Yadav of the RJD, Vijay Chaudhary (JDU), Jitan Ram Manjhi (HAM), Mukesh Sahani (VIP), Ajit Sharma (Congress), Akhtarul Imam (AIMIM), Mahboob Alal (CPI-ML), Suryakant Paswan and Ajay Kumar will be part of the delegation to meet the Prime Minister.

Chief minister Nitish Kumar had written to PM Narendra Modi on the demand of RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav on August 4 for a meeting on the issue. Tejashwi Yadav and Lalu Prasad have been demanding caste based census in the country.

Sources have said that Nitish Kumar is trying to show before PM Narendra Modi that he is capable of establishing contacts with opposition parties despite his numbers in Vidhan Sabha are lower compared to 2015 assembly election.

The Nitish Kumar government has a clear stand on caste based census. Nitish Kumar has already said that he will take a decision on the caste based census to be conducted in Bihar but first he will wait for the decision of PM Narendra Modi. The other JDU leaders have already said that the Bihar government is capable of conducting caste based census on its own.