Bhopal: After the Supreme Court pronounced that ‘no reservation for the OBCs can be provisioned until the triple test exercise is done’ and mandated the Madhya Pradesh State Election Commission (MP-SEC) to start election process without OBC reservation in the state, both the BJP and Congress have worked out their own strategy to woo the OBC voters.
Like the Congress, the state ruling BJP too on Thursday announced that the party will give tickets to 27 per cent OBC candidates in the local body polls. Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, after chairing a meeting of party leaders in Bhopal, announced that the more than 27 per cent candidates will be given tickets in local body polls. An indication in this regard had already come from the state BJP president B.D. Sharma on Wednesday.
A day after Chouhan, along with the State Home Minister Narottam Mishra, met Solicitor General Tushar Mehta and a team of senior advocates in Delhi to seek legal opinion to file a review petition against SC’s order, he said on Thursday that the party was ready for local body elections.
Addressing the BJP leaders at party’s headquarters in Bhopal, Chouhan said the government tried its best to provide justice to the OBC people by increasing their reservation quota from existing 14 per cent to 27 per cent and the local body polls were announced accordingly, but the Congress leaders took the matter into the court.
“We were ready for elections and all preparation was done, but fearing defeat, the Congress reached the court and the election process was stopped. BJP has given three OBC Chief Ministers in the state. Being the CM, I am making this announcement that the party will give over 27 per cent tickets to OBC candidates in local body polls,” Chouhan said.
Meanwhile, he also appealed to BJP leaders and workers to start the process for ‘Mahavijay Sankalp’ to expose the Congress on OBC reservation issue. He also said that the state government will continue to fight for providing reservation for OBC people in the state.
As both the ruling (BJP) and the opposition (Congress) wanted to increase OBC’s reservation quota from 14 per cent to 27 per cent in the state, both the parties had earlier in December last year had passed a unanimous resolution from the Assembly.
The MP Congress president and former Chief Minister Kamal Nath had already on Wednesday announced that the party will give 27 per cent tickets to OBC candidates in local body elections.
Nath on Wednesday had alleged that the BJP did nothing for the last two years to provide reservation for OBC people. “The state government could have amended the rule to provide 27 per cent reservation to OBC, but they did nothing. Nor had they represented the case in the court and as a result, the SC pronounced its judgment.”
“We have no hope from the BJP now. They (BJP) did nothing for the last two years. The state government could have amended the rule to provide 27 per cent reservation to OBC, but they did nothing. Nor had they represented the case in the court and as a result, the SC pronounced its judgment on Tuesday,” he said.
Politics, which has been raging on the issue for almost six months now, further intensified in the state after the SC’s judgment and both parties have started blaming each other for creating hurdles on OBC reservation.
Elections to 23,263 three-tier panchayat bodies, including 22,709 panchayats, 313 janpad panchayats and five district panchayats and 321 urban local bodies, including 16 municipal corporations, 79 municipalities and 223 municipal councils have been pending for around two years.
(IANS)
