Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav on Thursday said the Bharatiya Janata Party is afraid of holding a caste census.“A caste-based census can only be done by the central government as per the Constitution of India. What we did in Bihar was a caste-based survey. INDIA alliance has been demanding continuously that a caste-based census should happen. The BJP is afraid of a caste-based census. We are in full support of a caste-based census,” Yadav said.Caste-based survey ahead of Lok Sabha pollsEarlier, the Bihar government released caste survey data with figures that may have ramifications for the Lok Sabha polls next year, showing that Other Backward Castes (OBC) and Extremely Backward Classes (EBC) together account for 63 percent of the states population.According to the data, Scheduled Castes make up 19.65 percent and the Scheduled Tribes 1.68 percent of the population of Bihar.The data also said that the Hindus comprise 81.99 percent of the population, Muslims 17.7 percent, Christians 0.05 percent, Sikhs 0.01 percent, Buddhists 0.08 percent, and other religions 0.12 percent.The data said that Yadavs, the OBC group to which Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav belongs, is the largest and accounts for 14.27 percent of the states population.Kushwaha and Kurmi communities form 4.27 percent and 2.87 percent of the population, the caste survey said. Chief Minister Nitish Kumar belongs to the Kurmi community in the state. The total population of Bihar is more than 13 crore.INDIA bloc welcomed caste surveySeveral leaders of the INDIA bloc welcomed the Bihar governments move to conduct the caste survey while several BJP leaders alleged that the survey was done to create “tension” in the state.Bihar Leader of Opposition Vijay Kumar Sinha earlier hit out at the Bihar government over the caste-based survey stating that it was conducted to create “tension” in the state.Meanwhile, the chorus for nationwide caste-based data has grown. The findings from Bihar, one of the countrys politically significant states, have the potential to upend the countrys politics, with demands being made for a similar nationwide census.(With ANI inputs)