All-out war of words broke out between BJP and Congress on Saturday over the scrapping of the 27% political reservation to Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in the civic and local bodies in Maharashtra. Leader of Opposition in the state assembly Devendra Fadnavis (BJP) accused the Shiv Sena led Maha Vikas Aghadi government for the OBCs losing quota claiming that it was a major conspiracy as the state government has literally killed the political reservation to OBCs.
‘’The BJP will give 27 per cent tickets to OBCs in all upcoming local bodies polls in Maharashtra no matter what its outcome would be. We are ready to pay the price for it," he said. Fadnavis lashed out at the “arrogance” of the Uddhav Thackeray government for allegedly giving Census figures to the dedicated committee set up by the state backward classes commission instead of empirical data required to obtain quota for OBCs.
“The state government has killed the political quota for OBCs with its inefficiency,” he reiterated. Fadnavis was speaking at the state executive meeting of the OBC Morcha.
‘’Elections are being held without OBC reservation. I told myself at the meeting (convened by the state government) that the triple test should be done as soon as possible. I was of the view that a triple test can be done in three months. The apex court has observed that even though the state government has been given a date seven times, it could not complete the triple test," he added.
However, state Congress party chief Nana Patole strongly refuted Fadnavis’ allegations and held BJP and Fadnavis led government responsible for the cancellation of 27% political reservation to OBCs in the state.
‘’BJP and Fadnavis government are the real killers of political reservation of OBCs. BJP’s DNA is anti-OBCs. BJP’s agenda is to end the reservation in the country. RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat has already made a statement in this regard. It is not a secret,’’ alleged Patole. He said that the MVA government has been quite serious about restoring the OBC quota in civic and local bodies but the Centre refused to share the empirical data despite repeated pleas by the state government as the non-BJP government was in power since November 2019.
‘’Congress is committed to protect the OBC quota,’’ said Patole. ‘’Fadnavis and BJP are attacking the MVA government over the current situation of OBC quota. They are asking what the MVA government has done in the last two and half years. What did the Fadnavis government do for five years?’’ asked Patole.
Patole said Fadnavis and state BJP chief Chandrakant Patil instead of blaming the MVA government should check the history and what they did for the protection of OBC quota in civic and local bodies.
