Kejriwal misleading the public over Jat reservations: BJP

BJP accuses AAP's Kejriwal of misleading on Jat reservations, claiming no proposal was made. AAP counters, alleging BJP's failure to include Jats in OBC list.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday accused Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal of “misleading the public” regarding reservation for Jats in the Capital, claiming that the Delhi Assembly has never discussed the issue or sent such a proposal to the central government in the last 10 years.

Kamaljeet Sehrawat, Member of Parliament (HT Photo)

In response, the AAP claimed that the BJP-led Centre doesn’t include the Jat community of Delhi in its OBC list.

Kamaljeet Sehrawat, the BJP’s Lok Sabha MP, alleged that the AAP does not care about the welfare of Jats and is spreading a “false narrative”. “Reservation is a state subject. If the AAP really cared (about Jats), they would have initiated the process in the Delhi legislative assembly. Giving reservation to a specific group requires placing a proposal, forming a cabinet note, and sending it to the central government for approval. This has never been done by the AAP,” she said.

On Thursday, Kejriwal wrote to the Centre, claiming that the latter had failed to grant reservation to Jats in Delhi. The BJP, however, dismissed these claims, accusing the ruling party of exploiting the issue for electoral gains ahead of the assembly polls.

Sehrawat also alleged that despite former AAP minister Kailash Gahlot, who belongs to the Jat community and recently joined the BJP, repeatedly advising Kejriwal to initiate the process of giving the community reservation, nothing was done by the AAP. On the other hand, “the BJP has multiple times demanded reservations for Jats,” she said.

“PM Modi and Amit Shah have made promises, on four occasions, to include the Jat community in the central OBC list. Each time, they have gone back on their word...” the AAP said in a statement on Friday.