Mumbai:Will field OBC candidates in local bodies’ polls even if we lose, says BJP

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday said it was committed to OBC quota, adding that it will field OBC candidates in five districts in the local bodies’ elections in the state.

At an OBC (Other Backward Class) conclave held in Mumbai, leader of the Opposition and former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said, “In the monsoon session (of the Assembly), the state’s ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) adopted a resolution demanding that the Centre provide the empirical data on OBC. This was a clever plot. By putting the ball in Centre’s court, they want to delay the process till next local bodies elections in 2022.”

During the conclave, the party members discussed the strategy to get the OBC quota restored and decided to launch an “aggressive campaign” to project the BJP as an “OBC party”.

Senior leaders asked state OBC leaders to draw a list of welfare schemes enforced by the Central leadership for the community besides making a chart of all the decisions taken for the OBCs during the previous BJP-led government in Maharashtra.

Referring to the five districts of Nagpur, Dhule, Nandurbar, Akola and Washim, Fadnavis said, “BJP will field OBC candidates in all these districts. It does not matter even if some of our candidates lose.”
On his recent meeting with senior NCP leader Chhagan Bhujbal, Fadnavis said, “I urged him to take the lead on the matter. I also assured to provide a detailed note on how to proceed on empirical data…”

On March 4, the Supreme Court read down Section 12(2)(c) of The Maharashtra Zilla Parishads and Panchayat Samitis Act, 1961 and stated that it may be invoked only upon complying with the triple conditions before notifying the seats reserved for OBC category. One of the conditions required setting up of a commission to “conduct contemporaneous rigorous empirical inquiry into the nature and implications of the backwardness qua local bodies, within the State” to specify the proportion of reservation required.