BENGALURU: The Socio-Economic Educational Survey (SES-2015) report, known as the caste census -- accepted by the Siddaramaiah cabinet on Friday -- is likely to lead to a political polarisation as the two most dominant communities of the state are showing signs of rejecting it.
While some communities, like Muslims, Kurubas and a section of Scheduled Castes, may stand behind Congress, others are likely to revolt, saying their population is undercounted, political analysts said. Those opposing the survey say it is unscientific as a large population was left out.
“No enumerators visited my house for the survey,” said Veerashaiva Mahasabha president and senior Congress MLA Shamanuru Shivashankarappa.
The Kanatharaju commission, which oversaw the enumeration, claimed that the survey commenced on April 11, 2015 and ended on May 30, 2015. It’s unimaginable that it covered 5.9 crore people in 50 days of its tenure, said BJP MLAs GB Jyothiganesh and B Suresh Gowda. Some Congress MLAs from Veerashaiva-Lingayat and Vokkaliga communities too had similar views.
Veerashaiva-Lingayats and Vokkaligas will put up a united front, demanding scrapping of the report and conducting a fresh survey, sources said.
The protest will gain momentum once the survey is announced officially. More communities that see themselves as under-represented will join the campaign, the sources added.
For instance, the Thigala population is pegged at 5 lakh in the leaked report, but community leaders claim that they are over 30 lakh.
Some backward class communities reportedly feel that Siddaramaiah might have had a hand in the report and allegedly favoured his Kuruba community and Muslims. The report recommends restructuring of the quota for backward classes and increasing it from 32% to 51%. It also suggests that Kurubas be brought under the ‘most backward’ category.
Analysts compare the present situation to the controversy the Siddaramaiah government triggered in its first term by trying to give a separate religion status to Lingayats. The issue blew up in the government’s face and BJP romped home in the next Assembly elections in 2018.
On Monday, Siddaramaiah said he will respond to the report only after discussing it at the special cabinet meeting on April 17. But if the leaked report is to be believed and recommendations of K Jayaprakash Hegde, presented to the government on February 29, 2024, are included in it, it will trigger a controversy, analysts said.
The report puts the population of Vokkaligas at 73 lakh and recommends an increase in reservation for the community from 4% to 7% under Category III(A). The population of Veerashaiva-Lingayats is pegged at 81.3 lakh with a recommendation to increase the quota from 5 to 8 per cent under Category III(B). But this is unlikely to placate the communities.
Industries Minister MB Patil has reportedly claimed that the population of Veerashaiva-Lingayats would be one crore, if it is considered as one block including the sub-castes.