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Opposition engaging in politics on OBC quota issue: BJP govt in Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh BJP chief Bhupendra Chaudhary said now that the state government has filed the SLP in the Supreme Court, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav needn’t shed “crocodile tears” on the issue of OBC quota.
Under attack from several opposition parties on the other backward classes (OBC) quota issue, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Uttar Pradesh on Thursday maintained that even in previous Samajwadi Party (SP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) governments, local body polls were held on the basis of rapid survey of the backward classes.
“The opposition is merely engaged in dirty politics when the fact remains that during their time in power too, their party governments allowed local body polls on the basis of rapid survey,” senior government leaders said.
Uttar Pradesh BJP chief Bhupendra Chaudhary said now that the state government has filed the SLP in the Supreme Court, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav needn’t shed “crocodile tears” on the issue of backward quota.
The U.P. BJP chief was reacting to SP chief and leader of the opposition in the UP assembly Akhilesh Yadav’s press conference earlier in the day in which he had accused the BJP government of conspiring to rob the backwards and Dalits of reservation benefits provided to them by the Constitution.
“I don’t think any OBC or Dalit would fall for the SP chief’s political stunt. The fact is that SP itself is a party against the backwards,” the UP BJP chief, a Jat (OBC), from western Uttar Pradesh, said.
Arrangement for reservation of backward classes in local bodies was made in the Uttar Pradesh Municipality Act-1916 in 1994 and the same act empowered the government to conduct rapid survey of backward classes in each municipal body.
“Since 1991, all the elections to the municipal bodies (In 1995, 2000, 2006, 2012 and 2017) have been conducted on the basis of these provisions given in the Act and the report of the rapid survey. The Panchayati Raj department too, in May 2015, got a rapid survey of backward classes conducted,” they said.
“The government has not only set up an OBC commission but also moved the SC to ensure that quota benefits to backwards,” an official said.
“The commission will present its report after conducting a triple test for reservation for the OBC class in the local body elections. On the basis of that report only, the government will fix OBC quota in municipal elections,” said U.P. deputy chief minister Brajesh Pathak.
