Census 2027: Population count in four poll-bound states from Dec 1; Congress alleges 'nefarious' motives

Population enumeration for Census 2027 will take place in Goa, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and parts of Uttarakhand from December 1, 2026, to January 4, 2027, the Registrar General of India said on Saturday, advancing the exercise in states likely to go to polls early next year.

The move drew criticism from the Congress, which accused the Modi government of “shoddy planning” and alleged that “some nefarious political calculations” were behind the decision.

In a gazette notification, Registrar General of India (RGI) and Census Commissioner of India Mrityunjay Kumar Narayan said citizens in these areas can opt for self-enumeration from November 16 to November 30, 2026.

"The conduct of the Census of the population shall be undertaken in the States of Goa, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and areas other than snow-bound areas of the State of Uttarakhand, from 1st December, 2026 to 4th January, 2027 with a revisional round from 5th January, 2027 to 9th January, 2027," the notification said.

Reacting to the development, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said, "The population enumeration that was to take place in February 2027 as part of the Census 2027 exercise (that was due in 2021) has been advanced in UP, Punjab, Uttarakhand and Goa where elections are due early next year."

"This shows shoddy planning since it was known that these elections were due. Why the sudden dawn of wisdom? Undoubtedly there are some nefarious political calculations afoot," he said in a post on X.

Ramesh also alleged that question number 10 on caste was “deliberately very poorly designed” and would render the caste census exercise meaningless.

"The LoP-LS (Rahul Gandhi) and LoP-RS (Mallikarjun Kharge) had written to the PM on Aug 20, 2026 on this issue. Clearly their pleas for mid-course correction and their constructive suggestions to follow the Bihar and Telangana questionnaire model have been totally ignored," he said.

The notification said the reference date for Census 2027 for Goa, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Uttarakhand, other than snow-bound areas of the state, would be 00:00 hours on January 5, 2027.

"For the Union territory of Ladakh and snow-bound non-synchronous areas of the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir and the snow-bound non-synchronous areas of the states of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, the reference date shall be 00:00 hours of the 1st day of October, 2026," it said.

According to a gazette notification issued last month, population enumeration in Ladakh and snow-bound non-synchronous areas of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand would take place from September 1 to 30. The self-enumeration window for these regions was open from August 17 to 31.

In June 2025, the government had announced March 1, 2027, as the Census reference date for the rest of the country, except Ladakh and the snow-bound non-synchronous areas.

The population enumeration for the remaining parts of the country is likely to begin in February next year, during which data on demographic, socio-cultural and economic parameters, along with migration and fertility characteristics of individuals in each household, will be collected.

The terms of the assemblies of Goa, Manipur, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand end by May 2027, and the states are likely to go to polls early next year.

A wide range of government servants, primarily teachers, are engaged in both the Census and election exercises, making it difficult to conduct them simultaneously, an official said.

The central government has also deferred house-listing operations for Census 2027 in Manipur, according to another notification issued by the RGI on Saturday.

The Census, the eighth since independence, is being conducted in two phases: the first is house listing and housing census, followed by population enumeration. The decennial exercise, scheduled for 2021, was postponed due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

The Union Cabinet has approved Rs 11,718 crore for the Census, which will be the country's biggest headcount exercise.

(With inputs from PTI)