OBC body in Madhya Pradesh calls for State-wide ‘bandh’ to demand quota for community in local polls

The OBC body called for a ‘bandh’ on May 21 to press for its demand to provide 27% reservation to the community in the local body polls

An organisation representing the other backward classes (OBCs) in Madhya Pradesh on Friday gave a call for a State-wide ‘bandh’ on May 21 to press for its demand to provide 27% reservation to the community in the local body polls.

The Pichhada Varg Mahasabha gave this call three days after the Supreme Court directed the State Election Commission (SEC) to notify local body polls in Madhya Pradesh within two weeks without quota for OBCs and observed that until the triple test exercise, mentioned in a Constitution bench verdict of 2010, is completed in all respect, no such reservation can be provisioned.

Talking to reporters, the Mahasabha’s State working president Rakesh Singh Lodhi said, “If even after the May 21 bandh, the State government does not address our concerns, then a powerful nation-wide agitation would be launched.”

The BJP government and the opposition in the state had unanimously passed a resolution in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly (on December 23, 2021) for conducting three-tier panchayat polls with a provision for 27% reservation for OBCs, he said.

“But after the Supreme Court’s decision, the State government is keeping the OBCs off the democratic process,” he alleged.

Mr. Lodhi said that the ruling BJP and the opposition Congress in the State are promising 27% reservation to OBCs in their ticket allocation in the polls.