New Delhi, Mar 21 (IANS): The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), reacting to Congress veteran leader Anand Sharma's bombshell on the party's caste census push, on Thursday said that the party leaders are not on the same page despite its top brass making a strong pitch on the issue and also going at great lengths in mobilizing public support on it.

BJP national spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad, speaking to the media on the IANS newsbreak, said, "Truth is coming out now, people within the Congress are not on board."

When quizzed further, the BJP leader mockingly said, "Congress leaders will have to now clarify their stand on the caste census issue."

Notably, IANS in exclusive possession of Anand Sharma's letter to Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, first reported about the fresh cracks within the party over caste census.

"Congress has never engaged in nor endorsed identity politics and the proposed caste census can neither be a panacea nor a solution for unemployment and prevailing inequalities," wrote Anand Sharma, also a member of the Congress Working Committee (CWC).

The voices of dissent within the party couldn't have come at a worse time for the party. While the top Congress leadership held a joint presser on Thursday, accusing the government of freezing its funds and crippling it financially, the letter by Anand Sharma caught the party off unawares.

The veteran Congress leader dubbed Rahul Gandhi's caste census pitch as a "departure from the historic position of the party and also amounting to disrespecting the legacy of former Prime Ministers Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi.”