Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): The opposition Congress on Thursday demanded that a day-long special session of the Madhya Pradesh Assembly be convened to pass a unanimous resolution requesting the Centre to make a provision for providing 27 per cent reservation for the other backward classes (OBCs) in local bodies by amending the Constitution.
The Congress demand came two days after the Supreme Court directed the State Election Commission (SEC) to notify local body polls in MP 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.
Leader of Opposition in Assembly Dr Govind Singh, in a letter to Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, pointed out that the ruling BJP had moved a resolution in the House on December 23, 2021, to conduct three-tier panchayat polls with a provision for 27 per cent reservation for OBCs.
That resolution was unanimously passed by the House and the chief minister had stated that his government will present facts before the Supreme Court to ensure a 27 per cent quota for the social group in panchayat elections, he said.
However, the BJP government was unable to present its case in a solid manner before the SC, the Congress leader said.
The apex court did not rule in favour of OBC quota in local self-governed bodies despite the fact that both the ruling party as well as the opposition were in favour of granting such a reservation, Singh said.
"Therefore, it is necessary to convene a one-day-long special session of the Madhya Pradesh Assembly for unanimously passing a resolution to request the Centre to make a provision for providing 27 per cent reservation to OBCs by amending the Constitution," he said in the letter.
In its order on Tuesday, the apex court observed that election is due in respect of over 23,000 local bodies across Madhya Pradesh.
The SC said the election process cannot be delayed further as it would result in creating a hiatus situation upon expiry of the five-year term and it is the constitutional obligation of the authorities to hold elections on time.
While hearing the matter earlier, the SC had referred to the Constitution bench verdict of 2010 which had mentioned the triple condition, including setting up a commission to conduct a rigorous empirical inquiry into the nature and implications of backwardness qua (with regard to) local bodies within the state, which is required to be followed before provisioning reservation for the OBC category.
