YS Jaganmohan Reddy.
Credit: DH Photo
The Andhra Pradesh government has decided to conduct a caste census from 15 November that is aimed at highlighting the numerical strength of 143 communities that fall under the backward class (BC) category.
The state’s BC welfare minister, Chelluboyina Venugopala Krishna, said the BCs in the state are oblivious to their numerical strength. He did not mention any timeline but said a special app had been designed for this purpose.
Earlier, the YS Jaganmohan Reddy government had passed a resolution, demanding a nationwide caste census, and forwarded it to the Centre. The announcement may be a reality check, but it is also seen as the ruling party’s way to address the changing caste matrix after Pavan Kalyan’s Jana Sena and Chandrababu Naidu’s TDP allied, ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
The census methodology will kick off with round-table meetings, involving representatives of all caste groups in Vijayawada, Tirupati, Rajahmundry, Visakhapatnam and Kurnool, to enable them to share their suggestions or objections.
Kapus, classified as forward caste, and the BCs hold the key to power in the state, with 52 percent presence.
While the BCs comprise around 37 per cent of the state’s 4.98 crore population, the Kapus are around 15 per cent of the population.
A majority of BCs were traditionally aligned with TDP since 1982. In the 2014 polls, TDP got the majority of votes from the Kapus, due to its alliance with the Jana Sena as Pawan Kalyan is from that community. The TDP’s alliance with the BJP also helped.
However, in the 2019 assembly elections, there was a major shift in the BC dynamics and it helped the YSRCP trounce the TDP.