Image Source: Moneycontrol

Agencies:

Bihar Election 2020: CM Nitish Kumar backs population based reservation for castes

October 30, 2020

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on October 29 backed population based reservation for castes, but said it can only be implemented after census data is available.

Addressing a poll rally in Valmiki Nagar, he also attacked the Rashtriya Janata Dal over its record on law and order and ridiculed Tejashwi Yadav's promise of 10 lakhs jobs. He told the people that his Government has worked for the development of Bihar with the co-operation of the central government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The Valmiki Nagar Lok Sabha seat will go for a by poll on November 7, along with the ongoing Legislative Assembly election. The by-election has been necessitated there due to the death of Janata Dal (United) Member of Parliament (MP) Baidyanath Mahto. The Kumar led party has nominated Mahto's son Sunil Kumar from the seat.

"And as far as the question of population is concerned, that is decided only after census and that decision is not in our hands. We would like reservation be proportionate to population of castes. We have no opinions on it," he said.

Though in his speech on October 29, Kumar did not specify if he was talking about caste based census data, he has often demanded that the 2021 census brings out that data. He has on several occasion in the past said that all castes should get reservation proportionate to their population.

He said the people gave him 15 years to serve and if they elect his government again he would go among the public to discuss the problems that have not been addressed and work on them.