Mumbai: NCP president Sharad Pawar on Wednesday demanded a caste-based census, saying such an exercise was necessary to ensure social equality.
Addressing a meeting of the NCP OBC cell, Pawar said everybody should get what is rightfully due to them.
"We are not asking anything for free. There is no option but to conduct a caste-based census," the former Union minister said. Pawar said Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes had benefitted due to reservations granted to them by the Constitution and similar concessions are required for the Other Backward Classes."
The NCP leader's comments came in the backdrop of demands to restore OBC reservation in local body polls in Maharashtra, where elections are due this year in a number of local self-government institutions.