The statewide Chakka Jam agitation call given by Maharashtra BJP on the issue of OBC reservation in local body elections is perceived as an attempt to corner the Uddhav Thackeray-led MVA government.
The BJP has announced that it will conduct a massive statewide protest at 1,000 places on June 26 in order to highlight the failure of the MVA government in retaining reservation of OBC communities in local body polls. This protest call comes in the background of the apex court recently rejecting Maharashtra government's revision petition to restore reservation of OBCs in polls to village panchayats and other smaller local bodies.
The BJP claims that when the Devendra Fadnavis government was in power it had issued an ordinance on July 21, 2019, granting 27 per cent OBC reservation in local body polls. But, the MVA government did not take any action after assuming office, thus allowing the ordinance to lapse. The OBC quota in local bodies had been first declared in 1994 and is applicable to all urban and rural local bodies, including municipal corporations to village level Gram Panchayats.
Speaking on the issue in a press conference, former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said the SC had suggested to Maharashtra government to submit empirical data to justify OBC quota above 50 per cent. However, the government failed to submit even that prompting the SC to observe that the Maharashtra government was just biding time without any action and subsequently, scrapped OBC reservation in local body polls.
It is natural for the BJP to take up the cause of the OBCs as the community has always stood solidly behind the saffron party. In the days of Jansangh (BJP's predecessor), the party took great efforts to build a strong base in the OBC community as the Maratha community was by and large pro-Congress. BJP's efforts paid rich dividends as it got leaders like late Gopinath Munde and Eknath Khadse (now in NCP) from OBC communities.
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Senior MVA minister and NCP leader Chhagan Bhujbal has expressed his solidarity with BJP's views on the OBC reservation issue. Bhujbal is one of the tallest OBC leaders in Maharashtra. He, too, under the banner of his Samata Parishad, is planning to launch agitation for restoration of OBC reservations in local body polls.
In order to take on the BJP, the MVA government has deployed its minister for OBC welfare, Vijay Wadettiwar, who has announced that he has organised an all-party brain-storming session on June 26 and 27 to decide the further course of action. He also said that the state government will file a review petition in the SC urging the court to order the Centre to provide empirical data to the state government.
Late Gopinath Munde's daughter Pankaja, who is BJP's national secretary, has threatened that her party will not allow any local body polls if OBC reservation is not restored.