Fadnavis accuses MVA of ‘murdering’ OBC reservation in Maharashtra 

“It is now clear that the State government’s incompetence has brought this suffering for the OBCs”

After the Supreme Court cleared the decks for the implementation of reservation for Other Backward Classes (OBC) in the local body elections in BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh, the party in Maharashtra led by Devendra Fadnavis lashed out at the tripartite ‘Maha Vikas Aghadi’s’ government for its “ineptness” in completing the triple test which would have ensured reservation for the State’s OBC community ahead of the local body polls.

Mr. Fadnavis claimed that the MVA’s alleged foot-dragging had virtually “murdered” OBC reservation issue in the State.

“This government has literally killed off the OBC reservation… It is now clear that the State government’s incompetence has brought this suffering for the OBCs. Those in responsible posts ought to be tendering their resignations,” said the BJP leader.

Accusing the MVA parties of playing petty politics instead of getting its act together on the OBC issue, Mr. Fadnavis contrasted the Maharashtra government’s apparently lacklustre approach with the Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led government’s proactive approach in Madhya Pradesh.

“The Madhya Pradesh government had prepared its empirical data on the OBC community and submitted its report to the SC, which had rejected the government’s consolidated figures. The MP government, which constituted a dedicated commission, then immediately prepared OBC data specifically with regard to local bodies and furnished it before the Apex court. While we [the BJP] have been urging the MVA government to prepare empirical data for the past two-and-a half years, its leaders did nothing but make speeches,” he said.

As part of the so-called ‘triple test’, a dedicated commission is set up to conduct an empirical investigation to determine the backwardness of the community in the local bodies as a first step, while the second step concerns the panel’s recommendations specifying the proportion of reservation needed for the local body. The third step ensures that the reservation does not go over the aggregate 50% of the total seats reserved jointly for the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and OBCs.  

In December last year, the Supreme Court had dismissed the Maharashtra government’s writ petition which wanted the Centre to make public the raw data gathered in the 2011 socio-economic caste census (SECC-2011). The government wanted the data for implementing reservation to the OBC community in local body polls. However, the apex court quashed the plea on the ground that the Centre had already submitted that the SECC 2011 data was fraught with mistakes.