Transport minister Ponnam prabhakar challenges BJP's K. laxman on caste census stance

HYDERABAD: on Saturday asked BJP OBC Morcha president and Rajya Sabha member K Laxman whether he would exert pressure on his party to conduct a nationwide caste census, or risk being seen as a traitor to the Other Backward Classes community. He also demanded Laxman clarify his stance on the caste census. Addressing a press conference at the Gandhi Bhavan in Hyderabad, Prabhakar condemned the allegations that the Congress government was conducting the caste survey for electoral gains, saying that this allegation was meaningless since both the Assembly and Lok Sabha elections have been completed and there are no polls on the horizon.

He said that the BJP should answer whether reservations should be enhanced on the basis of proportion of castes after the survey. Accusing the BJP of attempting to disrupt the caste survey in Bihar and Jharkhand, the minister said that the BJP-led Union government filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court stating that it was against such a survey..