In almost a last act of defiance Chief Minister Siddaramaiah received the caste census report from the State Commission for Backward Classes on Wednesday evening, May 27, even as the report was stalled by leaders from his own party such as DK Shivakumar who is likely to be the next CM.
The submission comes at a politically sensitive moment, given Siddaramaiah’s positioning as a key OBC leader and the party’s national push for caste enumeration. The report is widely viewed as central to his political legacy, even as the Congress continues to pressure the NDA government to include caste data in the national Census.
According to reports, the commission convened a meeting on Wednesday morning, called at short notice, to discuss and finalise the report. By evening, commission chairman Madhusudan R Naik, along with other members, submitted the report to the Chief Minister at Vidhana Soudha.
Conducted in 2025 at a cost of Rs 635 crore, the survey covered nearly 5.9 crore of Karnataka’s estimated 6.26 crore population. It included 54 questions and faced boycotts from some groups along with intervention by the Karnataka High Court.
The exercise traces back to Siddaramaiah’s 2013–2018 tenure. The initial report was not released by subsequent governments led by HD Kumaraswamy, BS Yediyurappa and Basavaraj Bommai. After returning to office in 2023, the government accepted the earlier findings but ordered a fresh survey following objections from Vokkaliga and Lingayat leaders.
The second survey, launched in September 2025, covered more than two crore households and collected data on social, economic and educational indicators.
According to reports, the responsibility of implementing the report now lies with the Congress government, which has less than two years left in its term. The Cabinet is expected to deliberate on the next steps, including placing the report before the legislature and seeking public feedback.
This is the second such survey by the Backward Classes Commission. The previous survey, carried out by the H Kantharaj Commission in 2015 and submitted in 2024 by the Jayaprakash Hegde-led commission, was shelved on grounds that its data was outdated.
The earlier report had faced opposition from within the Siddaramaiah Cabinet, notably from Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar and Industries Minister MB Patil, who belong to the dominant Vokkaliga and Lingayat communities.
Nationally, Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi has been championing caste surveys and enhanced OBC reservation, even as the Karnataka report remained stalled due to resistance from Vokkaliga and Veerashaiva-Lingayat groups. Their demand for a “fresh scientific survey” pushed Siddaramaiah to set aside the earlier findings.
