Tejashwi slams Shah for questioning Bihar govt's caste-based survey

PATNA: Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav on Sunday slammed Union Home Minister Amit Shah for raising questions on the caste-based survey conducted by the state government.

“If Amit Shah believes that the caste-based survey conducted by the Bihar government is wrong then he should conduct a caste-based census in the country. No one is stopping him from doing that... I just listened to his speech and he was talking rubbish,” Yadav said.

“BJP has government in the Centre and also in many states. I want to ask him (Shah) how many EBC (Economically Backward Classes) or OBC (Other Backward Classes) chief ministers are there in those (BJP-ruled) states... He used to come here to tell lies and rubbish things to the people. We are providing jobs but he has not talked about it,” he added.

Shah, during a rally in Muzaffarpur on Sunday, said that the caste-based survey is an "eyewash and was done to show the increased population of MY (Muslim-Yadav)..."

The Union Home Minister also dared RJD leader Lalu Prasad and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to announce the candidate from the EBC category as the Chief Ministerial face for the 2025 state Assembly elections.

"Through the caste-based survey, they projected themselves as well-wishers of the EBC but actually, they cheated and misled them. The decision to conduct the caste-based survey was made at the time when the BJP (in alliance with the JD-U) was in power... Increasing figures of Muslims and Yadavs, and the declining EBC is an injustice to the EBC," Shah said.