BENGALURU: While RSS 's plan for ghar wapsi has sparked a raging controversy, Congress-ruled Karnataka is looking at a ghar wapsi of its own. For the first time in the country since 1931, Karnataka will conduct a census based on caste, education and economic status in which each of the state's 1.25 crore households can pick the caste it wants to be listed under.Any householder, whether Dalit-Christian, Dalit-Muslim or any non-Hindu denomination, can opt for a Hindu caste, thereby becoming eligible for benefits available to members of that category. The Dalit-Christian and Dalit-Muslim communities in particular have been clamouring for such rights."We have listed 1,427 castes that we know of. The householder can list his family in any of these. If the caste name is not known to us, the new name will also be noted down. And he is free to list any caste or religion as his, we will not do any counter verifying," H Kantaraj , chairman of the Karnataka State Backward Classes Commission , told ET.The commission, with 1.25 lakh enumerators, is to complete the count by February. The census form, which has 55 questions, includes a column for caste, sub-caste and other names that the caste is known by. It initially had a separate column, where respondents could mention whether they were ever converted and list their original caste.Following BJP's protests, this conversion question was dropped. "We did not want yet another caste to crop up, like Vokkaliga-Christian, Harijan-Muslim and so on. We want a caste census, but not further splitting of communities like this," said BJP state spokesperson and MLC Ashwathnarayana, who uses only one name. The government has accepted this logic and removed the conversion column, but has kept the door open for anyone who wants to list themselves under a backward or scheduled caste (Hindu denomination), to gain benefits."We need to study the impact of this," Ashwathnarayana said. Respondents can also opt to say they do not belong to any caste or religion. Kantaraj said the census was necessary if benefits and allocations were to be made in proportion to the numbers."This was envisaged in the Constitution itself, and we are all mandated to do the census," he contended. So far, the country's planning has been based on the 1931 census conducted by the British and all caste benefits have been given based on extrapolation of that data. "The intention is to make it meaningless, by ensuring that all castes develop equally," Kantaraj added.