Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, in an obvious dig at the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, said socialism was at the root of the great concept of ‘Ram rajya’ and it was possible only through a caste census.

“Ram rajya socialism is possible only when the caste census is done. Only after the caste census will there be development of everyone, brotherhood will come, discrimination will end and democracy will become strong,” he said.

The SP president has on multiple occasions called for a caste census.

Akhilesh Yadav's statement comes days after several opposition parties, including the Congress and the Janata Dal (United), demanded a caste census and sought reservation according to the population of Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes communities.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge even wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, demanding an updated caste census. He said meaningful social justice and empowerment programmes were incomplete without such data. Bihar Chief Minister and JD (U) leader Nitish Kumar supported the demand of the Congress party.

In a tweet in Hindi, Yadav said, "Socialism is the root of the great concept of Ram rajya. Socialism implements in a true manner on the ground principles like treating everyone equal without discrimination, embracing (one another) with love, giving equal opportunity to everyone and social security."

"Ram rajya is possible only through caste census, which will deliver true social justice," he added.

The demand for a caste census is likely to test BJP's outreach to the backward classes. While the Bihar unit of the BJP had supported a resolution for a caste census in the state, the party's central leadership is yet to respond to the demand for it.

Criticising the law and order situation in Uttar Pradesh, Akhilesh Yadav said: “It’s not just a breakdown of law and order; the entire system has collapsed. How many incidents does one count? In 2018, inspector Subodh Kumar Singh was killed by their own man . A businessman, Balwant Singh, was killed in custody in December 2022, in Kanpur,”

He said, “The UP government promised crores of rupees in financial aid and a government job to his (Balwant’s) wife, but nothing happened. Pushpendra Yadav (October 2019, Jhansi) was killed in a fake encounter and his wife ultimately killed herself when there was no justice…. Who in this world will believe that the van carrying gangster Vikas Dubey overturned on its own and he was killed when trying to escape?”

The SP chief said the BJP uses terms like ‘Amrit Kaal’, ‘Ram rajya’, but this was the reality of what was happening on the ground. “Where does a common man go for justice? If we were to believe that this killing was the work of criminals working on their own or that it was a government conspiracy, in both scenarios the government has no moral right to remain in power. Killing someone in police custody is the murder of justice itself.”