LUCKNOW: Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on Monday called the Centre's plans on NPR and NRC 'anti-poor' and pitched for conducting a caste census.
Yadav has made the suggestion in the past as well.
His demand now comes days after the Odisha cabinet adopted a resolution seeking revelation of caste details in the next Census.
Referring to an earlier Census, he said, "We all wanted a caste census but the Congress did not let that happen and the numbers did not come out."
He said the Census is going to take place again. "But again we are not going to be counted. The reason is that the day the caste census takes place, the Hindu- Muslim conflict will come to an end," he said without elaborating.
He added that once this happens "nobody will be upset with Yadav brothers".
Yadav was addressing party workers at an event here to welcome new members to the SP.
They included leaders at the block panchayat level and those who had fought elections in the past.
Criticising the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam, he claimed it had created a rift in that state.
Lakhs of people in Assam had found themselves excluded from the NRC at the end of the exercise to weed out illegal migrants.
The SP chief claimed that the NRC and the recently enacted Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) are 'anti-poor'.
In an apparent reference to the recent criticism of the NRC and the National Population Register (NPR), he said the poor will find it difficult to get their date of birth certificates.
"Earlier there were no calendars and the birthdays of most people in villages were based on festivals," he said.
He compared this to the inconvenience people went through when the Narendra Modi government demonetised high-value currency notes.
"The BJP created a rift between the rich and poor through demonetisation. All of us stood in queues. Tell me how many farmers benefitted. And the dream that corruption and terrorism will be eradicated, what happened to it?" he said.
Hitting out at the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh, the former chief minister claimed that the state has now become number one in cybercrime, crime against women and children, bad quality midday meals, fake encounters, unemployment and farmer suicides.
He claimed that the laptops given by the previous SP government to meritorious children are still working, while the toilets provided by the BJP government have stopped functioning.
"The farmers were promised that their incomes will double, and they voted the BJP to power in the state and at the Centre. But what have poor people and the farmers got in return?" He also accused the BJP of "stealing" the SP principle of taking everyone along, referring to the 'Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas' slogan.