Assembly Elections: Congress' caste pitch non-starter in Rajasthan

"What is the population of OBCs in our country? No one can tell you because there is a reason. There is a conspiracy, they do not want to tell you about your real population," said Rahul Gandhi at a rally on Thursday in Jat-dominated Hanumangarh constituency promising a caste survey if Congress government is voted back to power.

About 600 kilometres away in Chittorgarh, ask Rajkumar Khateek about Congress' promise of a caste survey, he looks blankly. This 35-year-old fruit seller at Chittorgarh bus stand says he is an OBC and has always voted BJP. Has the government worked? "Ashok Gehlot government has given us everything - free electricity, my children get good mid day meals in school and my mother gets old age pension," he says. But Rajkumar says he will still vote BJP. Travel north towards Jaipur and the numerically strong and politically influential Jat community is upset with BJP over removal of Satish Poonia, a Jat, as the state BJP president. Around this belt, the wrestlers issue is also recalled by Jats to bring up how Brij Bhushan Singh, a Rajput, was allowed to continue despite the wrestlers protest. In a state whose politics is steeped in caste, OBC vote is an important votebank being courted by both parties.

IMPORTANCE OF OBC VOTE
Of the 200 seats in Rajasthan Assembly, 30% of the elected MLAs are from OBC communities. BJP holds all 25 parliamentary seats in Rajasthan and 11 MPs are OBCs. According to 2011 Census, Scheduled Castes comprise 17.8% and Scheduled Tribes 13.5% of the population of Rajasthan. Though there is no exact number but OBCs comprise about 35-40% of the population. Jats are the most dominant OBCs. Both Congress and BJP have been mindful of the political heft of OBCs in distributing tickets in Rajasthan. BJP has given 70 OBC tickets and Congress 72.

THE POLITICAL PLAYOBCs in Rajasthan have been successfully courted by BJP. There are different sub-groups that are evenly split between the two parties depending on the primacy a certain community's leader is given by the leadership. Gujjars, for instance, were mobilized when Sachin Pilot was made the state unit chief by Congress and many saw him as the probable CM ahead of 2018 elections. However, with Pilot's successive attempts at chief ministership having failed, the Gujjars are now split between BJP and Congress in the run-up to November 25 elections.

The Congress has tried to win over OBCs with its new promise of a caste survey but people find the timing of the move is flawed. Arjun Detha, trade union leader and convenor of Loktantrik Morcha in Rajasthan, says, "We had written to chief minister in August 2021 asking him to order a caste survey. Had Congress ordered and then conducted one, it would have shown its intention towards reservation as per OBC population. Right now it is looking like political opportunism."

With an unemployment rate of 28.5%, a government job is the most conveted in Rajasthan. This is where reservation has an impact. Rajasthan offers 16% reservation for SCs, 12% STs, 21% OBCs and a 5% reservation for most backward classes of Gujjars and four others. In such a scenario, a caste survey, if announced and conducted, earlier could have made some difference.