NEW DELHI/BENGALURU: Congress decided Tuesday to undertake a fresh caste survey in Karnataka, citing rumblings within the state’s dominant communities about the reliability of the 2015 enumeration data, and asking CM Siddaramaiah and his deputy DK Shivakumar to target a 60- to 80-day timeframe for the exercise.Sources said the immediate incentive for the Congress brass to push the exercise was to deliver something that would potentially take the heat off the Siddaramaiah govt amid an accountability crisis in the aftermath of the June 4 Bengaluru stampede in which 11 cricket fans died.Also read: Congress top brass raps state unit for Bengaluru stampede“The party agrees in principle with the state govt on addressing the concerns of some communities that have reservations about caste data, which is a decade old and outdated. Hence, the party suggested re-enumeration within a stipulated time,” AICC general secretary KC Venugopal said.The decision effectively means that the Kantharaj Commission’s 2015 report goes into deep freeze, although Venugopal said it would be “discussed” at a cabinet meeting scheduled for Thursday.Siddaramaiah said the proposed re-enumeration would mimic the ongoing survey of Scheduled Castes in the state and would likely be completed within three months.Leaked data from the Kantharaj Commission’s report suggest Siddaramaiah’s core vote bank of Ahinda (Kannada acronym for minorities, backward classes and Dalits) has grown exponentially, compared to the Lingayat and Vokkaliga communities.Congress insiders suggested that CM’s reluctance, if any, to accept the decision to conduct a fresh caste survey would be balanced by the prospect of the stampede backlash getting “lost in the new noise”.Deputy CM Shivakumar said the decision was meant to enable everyone to resubmit information during house-to-house surveys and through online submissions. “Since this process would be an extensive one, we will decide the strategy at the next cabinet meeting. CM will then announce the timeline.”
