PATNA: The Bihar assembly on Thursday unanimously passed a resolution demanding a caste-based census in 2021.The move comes just two days after the 243-member House unanimously passed a resolution stating that National Register of Citizens (NRC) is “not needed in Bihar” while also emphasizing that the state would stick to the 2010 proforma for National Population Register (NPR) and add only a new column for transgenders.Bihar is the second assembly in the country seeking a caste-based census in 2021. On January 8, the Maharashtra assembly had passed a similar resolution.The twin resolutions on NRC-NPR and caste-based census are being seen in political circles as part of a strategy by Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar to ensure that his party, the JD(U), plays a dominant role in the assembly elections later this year vis-à-vis its ally, the BJP. Nitish has been emphasizing the need for a caste-based census arguing that it is required to increase the percentage of SC/ST and OBC quotas which is currently capped at 50% as per a Supreme Court verdict.Cutting across party lines, legislators thumped their desks and welcomed the resolution for caste-based census, which was moved by speaker Vijay Kumar Choudhary himself. “The last time the country had a caste-based census was in 1931. Several decades have since passed and it has now become necessary to hold a similar census again,” Nitish said in the House.Nitish said both the assembly and the legislative council had in 2013 passed a resolution on the need for a caste-based census. He added that in the last census, the socio-economic survey and caste enumeration were done in 2011 for a “limited purpose” and were found to be “flawed”.The issue of a caste-based population enumeration attracted a lot of attention in the 2015 assembly polls when the alliance of JD(U), RJD and Congress defeated NDA.While BJP supported Thursday’s resolution – just like it had backed the NRC-NPR resolution two days ago – the party’s minister, Nand Kishore Yadav, told mediapersons that there was “nothing new” in the resolution. “Earlier too, the House had passed a similar resolution,” he said. Though BJP had backed the resolution, its MLC Sachchidanand Rai said such a move can divide the society further.On expected lines, RJD welcomed the resolution. “It’s a historical fact that the social and spatial demarcation within India exists even today. SCs/STs/OBCs have been deprived socially and economically for ages,” leader of the opposition in the assembly, Tejashwi Yadav, tweeted hours after the House adopted the resolution. “Caste-based census will provide a radical ground at the policy level for greater social and economic reforms,” he added.