Lalu Prasad Yadav and Nitish Kumar find themselves on common ground

Both Lalu Prasad Yadav and Nitish Kumar have been vocal in their demand for a caste-based Census.

Rashtriya Janata Dal national president Lalu Prasad Yadav and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar share something in common these days, and it has become a talking point of sorts.

Both leaders have been vocal in their demand for a caste-based Census.

Through his social media profile, Lalu asked that if the purpose of the Census is the upliftment of the people, then why is it wrong in enumerating the castes and talk about bringing qualitative in the lives of the people of those castes?

He even went to the extent to state that if castes are not taken into account in the 2021 Census, all backward communities should boycott the process.

Lalu's Twitter utterances come days after the Centre refused to provide caste data in the Census 2021.

The Centre's decision has miffed the ruling party BJP's ally and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.

Nitish has been calling for a Caste-based census to be done at least once. 

The chief minister claims that if the government knew the exact number of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in the state would enable better re-modelling of welfare schemes. 

The 2021 Census was scheduled to start from April last year. However, it had to be rescheduled in the wake of the Coronavirus pandemic.

The process is expected to resume soon. The Narendra Modi government wants to complete the Census process by February next year.