Caste survey decision by Cong brass, not Karnataka government, says CM Siddaramaiah
BENGALURU: Karnataka CM
Siddaramaiah
sought to clarify Wednesday that it was the Congress brass's decision and not his govt's to undertake a fresh caste survey, suggesting unease at the prospect of his core vote bank of minorities, backward classes and Dalits not taking kindly to re-enumeration after leaked data from the 2015 exercise showed a massive jump in their numbers.
Siddaramaiah, under the pump for the June 4 stampede in Bengaluru in which 11 cricket fans died, told reporters at Gauribidanur in Chikkaballapur district that there were "some complaints" about the Kantharaj Commission's caste survey data.
Won't reject 2015 census report: Siddaramaiah
There were claims that the data was outdated, so some suggested a fresh enumeration within a relatively shorter timeline. We won't reject the (2015) report. We have already accepted it in principle," Siddaramaiah said.
On whether he was disappointed with Congress's decision to go for fresh survey, he said, "We will act per the high command's directive. It's not our decision."Siddaramaiah and his deputy minister D K Shivakumar had been summoned to Delhi Tuesday for a meeting with Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge, purportedly to explain state govt's failure to stem the outrage over the stampede sparked by an allegedly mismanaged victory parade for IPL-winning cricket franchise RCB.
While Siddaramaiah appeared wary of owning the decision to enumerate caste demography afresh, Shivakumar batted on the front foot. He questioned why BJP was criticising the decision to conduct a new survey after refusing to accept data from previous one.
"Why such opposition when we are trying to address concerns? We are not rejecting the Kantharaj Commission's report. We are only trying to correct the shortcomings of the earlier survey," DKS said.
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