Promising a nationwide caste census, the Congress Working Committee on Monday declared that a central government led by the party would through legislation remove the quota cap of 50 per cent to provide reservation to OBCs, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in line with their share of the population.

Addressing a media conference after the CWC meeting, Rahul Gandhi said: “A caste census is about justice and representation, it is not driven by electoral considerations. Our highest decision-making body has taken a unanimous decision, without any dissenting voice, and we will implement it come what may. We accept our mistake. We should have done it earlier. Now we are going to do this. A new development paradigm will emerge. Once we make a promise, we don’t back out.”

The CWC resolution promised “to conduct a nationwide caste census as part of the normal decadal census which was due in 2021”.

It also said: “We will implement the 33 per cent reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and state Legislative Assemblies at the earliest, ensuring adequate representation for women belonging to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and including OBCs as well. The unnecessary obstacles of census and delimitation imposed by the Modi government will be removed.”

This is the first time the Congress has resolved to remove the legal cap of 50 per cent on reservation. This has been done in the light of the Bihar government’s survey, which found that the general category population was merely 10 per cent while the OBCs constituted more than 63 per cent of the population. The Congress, traditionally an upper caste party that had sewn up a broader coalition with Dalits and minorities to come to power, has now taken the lead in OBC politics in a radical shift before the 2024 general election.

Rahul said: “Out of our four chief ministers, three are OBCs. The BJP has only one OBC chief minister in the 10 states ruled by it and he (Shivraj Singh Chouhan of Madhya Pradesh) too will not be there after a few days. Modi doesn’t want the empowerment of OBCs; he hasn’t done anything for them. He is the main instrument of the RSS to create distractions from the cause of social justice.”

Rahul added: “It is about the poor. It is about Dalits, OBCs, tribals and minorities. The economic survey will follow after the X-ray which the caste census is. If we want a just system, we need a caste census. The Prime Minister is making unconnected statements. What the caste census has to do with the representation of the south is difficult to understand. Narendra Modi didn’t react to what I said about only three OBC officers out of the 90. It is acceptable for him.”

Describing the decision as historic and very powerful, he said the Congress chief ministers too had decided to pursue it. While Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot has announced a decision to hold a caste survey, Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah has said his government would release the data as soon as the report is submitted to him.

Rahul appeared unusually aggressive about the objective, saying: “We will force the BJP government to do a caste census or ask it to get out of the way.”

Asked whether there was a consensus within the Opposition group INDIA on this subject, he said; “Most parties support the idea. One or two parties may have a slightly different view. But that’s fine; we are not a fascist system. We are flexible, we don’t have any problem with that.”

To make his point about caste discrimination and lack of representation in every field, he asked the reporters: “How many Dalits are in this room? How many tribals and OBCs?” He was vindicated as only one raised his hand.

The CWC also welcomed the objective of the Justice Rohini Commission of sub-categorisation within the OBCs, but underlined that it would remain incomplete without detailed data on the socio-economic conditions of various communities, which can be obtained either from the still unreleased data of the 2011 socio-economic and caste census or a fresh caste census.

The CWC said: “The Modi government has cheated the OBC communities and other deprived sections of the country by not releasing the data of the 2011 socio-economic and caste census and not carrying out a fresh caste census; it has also failed in its constitutional duty by inordinately postponing the decadal census that ought to have been conducted in 2021 or soon thereafter. It is a matter of shame that India remains the only country in the G20 that has failed to carry out the census.”