Opposition Plans Reservation Politics To Counter The BJP In 2024

With lower than 15 months left for the overall election, wherein Prime Minister Narendra Modi will search a historic third consecutive time period on the centre, opposition events are reinventing the methods of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Celebration to counter it within the essential electoral battle.

Although there’s little or negligible understanding between opposition events, a minimum of six states have both accomplished or are within the technique of conducting a caste-based survey to counter the BJP’s social engineering techniques within the upcoming political contest.

“Bihar is conducting a caste-based survey, which shouldn’t be referred to as a census. All state governments are inside their rights to conduct such a survey. Even the Supreme Courtroom has typically mentioned in its observations that there needs to be higher examine by state governments earlier than they implement any advantages for the folks,” mentioned Naval Kishore, spokesperson of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), which is a part of the federal government below chief minister Nitish Kumar. “This survey will assist the Bihar authorities perform improvement work in a extra focused method and likewise discover out the socio-economic situation of the OBC neighborhood.” 

It was in 2010 when veteran BJP chief Gopinath Munde first demanded a nationwide survey to search out the socioeconomic standing of different backward courses within the nation. Talking at a perform in Mumbai in April 2010, Munde argued that the OBC census have to be included within the 2011 nationwide census. Munde served because the BJP’s deputy chief of the opposition within the Lok Sabha.

Munde additional mentioned that if the federal government below Congress denies the caste-based survey, one other decade will cross and there might be no social justice for the OBC neighborhood. Munde mentioned that an OBC census was wanted as a result of they make up greater than half of the inhabitants, and since there is no such thing as a reservation, OBCs could not voice their calls for in a extra articulate method like scheduled castes and scheduled tribes.

The ruling BJP, below the management of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has particularly reached out to the OBC neighborhood for the previous eight years. With the assistance of the OBC neighborhood and the beneficiaries of quite a few authorities schemes, the occasion reworked itself right into a mass organisation.

“It’s apparent that such a survey can have a socio-economic impression, and there’s a political aspect to the story. The Bihar authorities is conducting the survey as a result of the union authorities didn’t pay for it. There isn’t any information in regards to the standing of OBCs within the nation. The one information obtainable is from a survey carried out previous to independence,” Kishore mentioned. “The Bihar authorities is spending Rs. 500 crore on the challenge.”

Among the many states which have actively demanded a caste-based survey are Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Odisha, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana. Opposition leaders in Uttar Pradesh have additionally demanded that there needs to be a survey of OBCs, and the Samajwadi Celebration is spearheading the demand. Out of those seven states, Maharashtra, Odisha, Telangana, and Chhattisgarh have already accomplished caste-based surveys of their states below the pretext of social justice and higher distribution of presidency beneficiary packages.

The state authorities of Chhattisgarh has taken the lead and handed the Chhattisgarh Public Service (Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribes, and Different Backward Courses Reservation) Modification Invoice, which permits STs to get 32% reservation, OBCs will get 27%, and SCs will get 13%. In line with the invoice handed by the Chhattisgarh authorities, the entire reservation within the state now stands at 72%.

“The transfer has just one function, and that’s to chop the voter base of the BJP. The BJP was the primary to speak about OBC and provides prominence to the neighborhood, and now opposition events try to win over the BJP’s voter base earlier than the Lok Sabha elections,” mentioned Badri Narayan, director of the Govind Ballabh Pant Social Science Institute in Allahabad.