BJP-Cong war of words over OBC quota continues
All-out war of words broke out between the BJP and the Congress on Saturday over the scrapping of the 27 per cent political reservation to Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in the civic and local bodies in Maharashtra.
Leader of Opposition in the state assembly Devendra Fadnavis accused the Shiv Senaled Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government for the OBC 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 while speaking at the state executive meeting of the OBC Morcha. 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.
He added, “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 the BJP and Fadnavis-led former state government responsible.
Patole alleged, “The BJP’s DNA is anti-OBCs. Its 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.” 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.
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?” –NANA PATOLE