Congress slams advance Census in poll-bound States, sees plot

The Congress on Saturday accused the Modi Government of “shoddy planning” in advancing the population enumeration exercise in states likely to go to polls early next year, and alleged that “some nefarious political calculations” were behind the move.

Population enumeration for Census 2027 will take place in Goa, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and parts of Uttarakhand from December 1, 2026, to January 4, 2027, the Registrar General of India said on Saturday, advancing the exercise in the states likely to go to polls early next year.

In a gazette notification, the Registrar General of India (RGI) and Census Commissioner of India, Mrityunjay Kumar Narayan, said the citizens in these areas can avail the option for self-enumeration from November 16 to November 30, 2026.

Reacting to the development, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said, “The population enumeration that was to take place in February 2027 as part of the Census 2027 exercise (that was due in 2021) has been advanced in UP, Punjab, Uttarakhand and Goa where elections are due early next year.”

“This shows shoddy planning since it was known that these elections were due. Why the sudden dawn of wisdom? Undoubtedly there are some nefarious political calculations afoot,” he said in a post on X.

He also alleged that question number 10 on caste was “deliberately very poorly designed” and would render the caste census exercise meaningless.

“The LoP-LS (Rahul Gandhi) and LoP-RS (Mallikarjun Kharge) had written to the PM on Aug 20, 2026 on this issue. Clearly, their pleas for mid-course correction and their constructive suggestions to follow the Bihar and Telangana questionnaire model have been totally ignored,” he said.

The notification said the conduct of the Census of the population shall be undertaken in the States of Goa, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and areas other than snow-bound areas of the State of Uttarakhand, from 1st December, 2026 to 4th January, 2027 with a revisional round from 5th January, 2027 to 9th January, 2027.

It said the reference date for Census 2027 for Goa, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Uttarakhand, other than snow-bound areas of the state, shall be 00:00 hours of January 5, 2027.

“For the Union territory of Ladakh and snow-bound non-synchronous areas of the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir and the snow-bound non-synchronous areas of the states of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, the reference date shall be 00:00 hours of the 1st day of October, 2026,” it added.

A Government statement issued in June 2025 had said that the reference date for the remaining country, except Ladakh and snow-bound non-synchronous areas of the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir and the snow-bound non-synchronous areas of the states of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, would be March 1, 2027.