Caste survey will help us work for all: Nitish amid reservation clamour at all-party meet

Data collected in Bihar's landmark caste survey will help the state government work for the upliftment of all sections, chief minister Nitish Kumar told an all-party meeting on Tuesday, even as members of the state's ruling coalition pushed for higher reservations to socially and economically backward communities and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) flagged flaws with the exercise.

- Anirban Guha Roy

The meeting came a day after the results of the survey that enumerated 130 million people showed that backward communities comprise nearly two-thirds of Bihar's population. Opposition parties hope to use the survey results to reverse the BJP's inroads among marginalised castes.

A government statement said Kumar told the meeting that the survey was carried in a proper manner with the educational and economic data of households.

"We will take the opinion of all parties to work in the interest of the state's population based on the caste survey report. Our objective is to uplift the deprived sections and we will do it with consensus of all," he said, according to the statement.