Jaipur, Apr 30 (PTI) Rajasthan Chief Minister Bhajanlal Sharma on Wednesday welcomed the Centre's decision to include caste enumeration in the next census, calling it historic and farsighted. Sharma claimed that Congress and its allies not only opposed caste census when they were in power for decades, but they even adopted double standards on this important issue only for political gain, while they were in opposition. Also Read | Who Was Misha Agrawal? All About Social Media Influencer Who Died by Suicide 2 Days Before Her 25th Birthday Due to Decrease in Followers. He said, "The decision of the Union Cabinet under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to include caste-based census in the census is historic and farsighted." "This commendable decision will provide justice to the deprived sections of the society, establish social justice and ensure participation of all sections in the mainstream of development," the chief minister said. Also Read | Pahalgam Terror Attack: India Reaches Out to Non-Permanent Members of UNSC Over Brutal Terrorist Attack in Jammu and Kashmir. Meanwhile, former chief minister Ashok Gehlot also showed support for the centre's decision and said that the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi had been demanding a caste census for social justice. "The real and inclusive development of the country can happen only when Dalits, backward, tribals and exploited will get a share in development in a scientific manner, therefore Rahul Gandhi was constantly insisting on caste census," Gehlot said. "Today the cabinet of the Modi government also had to approve this demand. Now after 1931, the caste census will be done after about 94 years," Gehlot added. In a major decision, the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Centre on Wednesday decided to include caste enumeration in the next census exercise in a "transparent" manner. Announcing the decisions taken by the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs, Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said the census comes under the Centre's purview but some states have done caste enumeration in the name of surveys. Alleging that the states ruled by opposition parties have got the caste surveys conducted for political reasons, Vaishnaw said it is the Narendra Modi government's resolve to transparently include caste enumeration in the next pan-India census exercise. The census exercise was to commence in April 2020 but got delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)