New Delhi, May 5: The BJP shot itself in the foot a second time in Parliament after last week’s cut motion fiasco by torpedoing a discussion on the census because of internal divisions on the enumeration of castes.

The party’s backward caste MPs are seething at their bosses in the House for “deliberately mixing up issues” and, instead, bringing the controversy over “Bangladeshi infiltrators” to the forefront. The MPs — who make up a sizeable block — felt they would have put the Centre on the mat had they tacitly backed the RJD, Samajwadi Party and Janata Dal (United) in demanding a caste-based census.

A meeting of the Union cabinet yesterday had exposed the schisms within the Congress. M. Veerappa Moily, S. Jaipal Reddy and Vayalar Ravi had pitched for caste enumeration, but Pranab Mukherjee, Anand Sharma and Kapil Sibal opposed it. P. Chidambaram, whose home ministry is overseeing the exercise, said the enumerators lacked the sociological sensitivity to classify the population on lines of castes and sub-castes.

Today, the BJP’s backward caste lobby was “shocked” with the way the party’s motion was phrased. Instead of focusing on caste, the motion questioned how a resident’s “nationality” was being recorded without proof.

“This means even recent illegal migrants from Bangladesh can declare themselves as Indian nationals without adducing evidence,” it said. BJP leader Ananth Kumar spoke on the theme in Parliament, but went on to controversially include the Nepalis, too.

Once the subject of “illegal immigration” was foregrounded, the OBC MPs concluded, their case went out of the window.

The BJP’s deputy leader in the Lok Sabha, Gopinath Munde, had first flagged off the inclusion of caste in the census last month. Later, he had clarified it was his “personal” view.

Two days ago, Sushma Swaraj said “this (the census) is a golden opportunity to classify the population on class, caste and religious lines”. Today, she wondered why Lalu Prasad and Mulayam Singh Yadav were pre-occupied with caste.