Bhopal(Madhya Pradesh): The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is propagating Rahul Gandhi’s statement on Modi surname as an offensive remark against the Other Backward Classes (OBC) across the country.
After Rahul’s disqualification from the Lok Sabha, the BJP is raising the issue more vigorous than the party was previously doing.
Because of the issue against Rahul, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has again taken the front seat. The BJP has government in nine states and only two of have OBC chief ministers. Therefore, the BJP’s OBC card has strengthened Chouhan’s position.
On the other hand, to counter the BJP’s criticism on the issue of OBC, the Congress has thrown up the names of party’s OBC chief ministers.
Former chief minister Prithviraj Chouhan, who was in Bhopal on Wednesday, said out of three states ruled by the Congress, two have OBC chief ministers.
The controversy over OBC has made it clear that the BJP leaders, who represent the people of other backward classes, will get more importance in the party than they were getting. Chouhan will, however, remain strong in the present circumstances.
Such a thing has not happened to Chouhan for the first time. Just before the Panchayat and urban bodies’ elections, the Supreme Court cancelled the reservation for OBC.
Nevertheless, the MP government got the reservation back for the OBC by putting arguments in its favour, which gave benefits to Chouhan.
Besides Chouhan, Uma Bharti and Prahlad Patel are well-known as OBC leaders, but both these leaders are strongly rooted only among the people of Lodhi community.
Scindia, being a Maratha, belongs to other backward classes, but he is not known as their leader.
There are few ministers in the cabinet who represent the OBC. This is the reason that Chouhan has established himself as the strongest of all the OBC leaders in the state. Whenever there is any political uproar, Chouhan gets the benefit of being a member of the OBC.
