With eye on Bihar polls, BJP to set up new OBC front

With an eye on the numerically significant backwards classes in Bihar, the Bharatiya Janata Party announced on Friday that it would set up a new other backward classes (OBC) front in the party to champion

With an eye on the numerically significant backwards classes in Bihar, the Bharatiya Janata Party announced on Friday that it would set up a new other backward classes (OBC) front in the party to champion the cause of backward and extremely backwards castes.

SP Singh Baghel a three-time Lok Sabha MP and prominent OBC face from Uttar Pradesh — would head this front.

Baghel joined the BJP during the run-up to the 2014 Lok Sabha polls and gave Mulayam Singh Yadav’s nephew a tough fight in Firozabad, but lost. Haryana leader and party’s secretary Sudha Yadav has been appointed as the Prabhari of the OBC cell.

“The OBCs had voted for the BJP in the Lok Sabha polls. The backward classes in Bihar account for nearly 50% of the state’s population. They are equally strong in Uttar Pradesh. The decision is to reaffirm our commitment for social justice and keep our support base among OBCs intact,” a BJP leader said.

The party is facing stiff competition from the RJD-JD(U)-Congress alliance in Bihar.

On Friday, BJP chief Amit Shah also announced a new list of people in-charge for states, bringing in Kailash Vijayavargiya as prabahri of West Bengal. He replaces Sidharth Nath Singh who has been assigned Andhra Pradesh.

Former RSS leader Ram Madhav, who joined the BJP last year as a general secretary, could not get any assignment for the state in the new list. Former Union minister D Purandeshwari — daughter of TDP founder and former Andhra Pradesh CM NT Rama Rao has been appointed co in-charge for Karnataka and prabhari of the women’s front of the BJP.

Haryana prabhari Anil Jain has been given the additional responsibility of Chhattisgarh while BJP’s lone woman general secretary Saroj Pandey has been assigned Maharashtra.

Uttarakhand in-charge Shyam Jaju was given the additional responsibility of Delhi.