Modi's Caste Census Delay: A Strategic Political Move

Caste Census India Politics Modi Government Electoral Strategy OBC Representation

April 30, 20263 min readAsia

Modi's Caste Census Delay: A Strategic Political Move

Exploring the implications of India's caste census timing

Modi Keeps Leverage by Slowing India’s Caste Census

Congress says Modi is delaying caste enumeration. The bigger issue is leverage: Delhi can still time census, delimitation and quota politics together.

The Modi government holds the leverage because it controls both the calendar and the format. Congress is accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of delaying the caste census because, a year after the Union Cabinet said caste enumeration would be included in the next Census, the government still has not published the operational details of the exercise, according to The Hindu’s April 2026 report on the Congress charge and earlier reporting on the 2025 Cabinet decision. PM Modi wants to delay caste census; details of exercise still awaited: Congress Caste count seen as a strategic move by government to weaken Opposition plank

Why Delhi is stretching the timeline

The government’s incentive is straightforward: caste data is not just welfare data; it is bargaining power over representation. Union Minister G. Kishan Reddy said the next Census may be held in 2026 to align with the schedule for delimitation of Lok Sabha and Assembly seats, and The Hindu reported that amendments to the Census Act, 1948 may be needed to enable caste data collection. Census may be held next year to match delimitation schedule, says minister Kishan Reddy

That sequencing benefits the BJP-led Centre. If Delhi fixes the questionnaire, the legal framework and the release date, it can decide whether caste enumeration becomes a technocratic update, a welfare instrument, or a trigger for a larger fight over quotas and seat redistribution. Congress, by contrast, gains politically only if it can force a deadline and claim ownership of the issue. That is why Rahul Gandhi and other Congress leaders have tied caste enumeration to a broader warning that the government is trying to reshape the electoral map while delaying social data that could strengthen OBC claims. Govt. wants to change India’s electoral map, Opposition will defeat the Bill, says Rahul Gandhi For broader context, this sits squarely inside India’s larger political reset on India.

Why this matters beyond one census

India has not conducted a full nationwide caste census since 1931, and the 2011 Socio-Economic and Caste Census did not yield a clean, publicly usable caste count, with the government later citing data problems. Centre debates taking caste count during Census A different approach to the caste census | Explained

That gap matters because state-level exercises have already changed politics. Bihar’s 2023 caste survey found OBCs and EBCs together at about 63% of the population, turning caste data into a live instrument for coalition-building and reservation demands; Telangana’s 2025 survey pushed the same debate further. A different approach to the caste census | Explained Once the Centre nationalised the issue in April 2025, it also took ownership of when those pressures are allowed to mature. Caste count seen as a strategic move by government to weaken Opposition plank

What to watch next

The next decision point is not rhetorical; it is administrative. Watch for three signals: a formal Census timetable, draft enumeration forms and guidelines, and any Bill amending the Census Act in the monsoon session, which officials have indicated may be necessary for caste data collection. Census may be held next year to match delimitation schedule, says minister Kishan Reddy

If those steps slip again, Congress’s allegation of deliberate delay will gain force. If they move quickly, the real contest shifts from whether caste will be counted to how the numbers are used — in welfare, in quotas, and eventually in delimitation. That is now one of the most consequential questions in Global Politics as practiced in New Delhi.

Originally published by The Hindu.

Sources (13)

Census may be held in 2026 to match delimitation schedule, says Union Minister Kishan Reddy - The Hindu

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Govt. wants to change India’s electoral map, Opposition will defeat the Bill, says Rahul Gandhi - The Hindu

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Why is PM Modi delaying Census that must include caste count: Congress - The Hindu

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Centre debates taking caste count during Census - The Hindu

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Congress discusses women’s reservation law and delimitation; Kharge to meet other Opposition leaders for joint strategy - The Hindu

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Caste count: Ashwini Vaishnaw insists SECC, State efforts were ‘surveys’

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A different approach to the caste census | Explained - The Hindu

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RSS-BJP publicly denied the idea of caste census: Surjewala

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BJP Backs Caste Census Before Bihar Election After Years of Delay - Frontline

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Caste Census 2025: How Bihar Became Ground Zero for India’s New Political Arithmetic - Frontline

frontline.thehindu.com

Caste count seen as a strategic move by government to weaken Opposition plank - The Hindu

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Top news of the day: April 30, 2025 - The Hindu

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Congress and allies opposed the caste census for decades while in power: Amit Shah - The Hindu

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