Congress-ruled Telangana launched a caste-based survey on Saturday, fielding 80,000 enumerators to cover 1.17 million households in 33 districts of the state.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi welcomed the move and said Prime Minister Narendra Modi “wanted to stop the caste census”.

“Caste census has started today in Telangana. We will use the data obtained from it to frame policies for the growth of all wards of the state. Soon this will happen in Maharashtra too. Everyone knows that the BJP does not want to conduct a caste census in the country,” Rahul said.

He said the prime minister “cannot stop the caste census across the country”. “We will pass this in Parliament and break the 50% reservation wall,” Rahul said. AICC general secretary (communications) Jairam Ramesh said the caste census and the lifting of the SC’s 50% ceiling on reservation for SCs, STs and OBCs were central to the Congress’s vision for the country.