With the Supreme Court clearing the deck for OBC reservations in Madhya Pradesh local body elections on Wednesday, major political parties in the state have gone into an overdrive to woo and consolidate their OBC vote bank. The apex court has upturned its own ruling it delivered barely four days ago on May 10, in which it refused to extend 35 per cent of reservations to OBCs in the coming panchayat and local urban body elections, as pleaded by the BJP-led state government. There can be no reservations for OBCs, the Court observed, until the state government properly completed the triple test exercise as stipulated in its 2010 bench verdict. But the clearance comes with a rider: in no circumstance can the OBC reservations go beyond the preset limit of 50 per cent. Elections to over 23,200 local bodies are due in the state since 2019-2020.
There is jubilation in the BJP camp, as the Supreme Court verdict was celebrated by the BJP with sweets distribution in the state party office here in Bhopal. Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan could not hide his glee while welcoming the Court decision. Squarely blaming the Congress Party for filing the case in the Supreme Court and unfavourable verdict earlier, Chouhan said, “Finally, truth has prevailed and it has been proved again that truth cannot be defeated. I salute the Supreme Court. We had sought elections but with OBC reservations. The Congress Party had sinned. The elections were being held with OBC reservations, but it was the Congress Party people who had approached the Supreme Court upon which it was decided (by the Court) that elections should be held without OBC reservations. We left no stone unturned and submitted the (Backward Commission) report before the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court has ordered to hold elections with OBC reservations. We welcome the decision.”
The jubilation in the BJP camp over the Court verdict is not misplaced, though. Muralidhar Rao, in charge of the BJP Madhya Pradesh, had not long so ago said, “Brahmin and Baniya are our pocket borough.” It is Rao, in fact, who has set out a goal for the BJP to secure 51 per cent of votes in coming elections by roping in SC, ST and OBCs in the state. If the BJP is able to hit that target, it would be no less a miracle as it would help the party to remain at the helm of affairs in the state for a long time to come. Behind the OBCs becoming a hot property for both the saffron party and the Congress party lies the need to consolidate them as a reliable vote bank by making OBC reservations a cause calibre.
OBC communities constitute about 50 per cent of the 8 crore population of the state. Both parties, therefore, are making an all-out effort to lure OBCs like Lodh, Yadav, Kurmi, Kirar and Kalar, among others, into their political fold and convert them into a solid and permanent vote bank. If this tactic pays off in assembly elections, which are due in 2023 in the state, the BJP would deploy it in other states including Uttar Pradesh, where the OBCs are in decisive sizable numbers, to counter caste-based politics, and take it further in 2024 parliamentary elections, as well.
The political power in Madhya Pradesh revolves around two parties. The government will be formed either by the Congress Party or by the BJP. Regional parties in the past have tried to make inroads in the state but could not succeed. Except for the Bahujan Samaj Party and Samajwadi Party from UP, no other outfit could ever secure a single-digit win in assembly elections in the state. Even the Gondwana Ganatantra Party, with a firm base among the tribal population in the state, and the Bharatiya Janashakti Party formed by Uma Bharti after deserting the BJP could not make in a visible impact on the electorate.
Actually, it is the tribal constituencies that play a decisive role in bringing a party to power in Madhya Pradesh. Tribals have been a traditional vote bank of the Congress Party. After the tribals switched their allegiance to the saffron outfit in 2003, the BJP has been winning election after election to form government for the past three terms. In the 2018 elections, however, the Congress Party under Kamal Nath managed to wean them away from the BJP. The party was able to form the government, though it did not have a full majority, but could not complete the term and was removed after 15 months in a high-pitched political drama. The disillusionment of tribals from the BJP allowed the saffron strategists to introspect. The BJP is, therefore, not only trying to win over the tribals Scheduled Castes back to its fold but also trying to make OBCs its sold vote bank. Pitching for OBC reservations in local body elections is, thus, the fulcrum of the BJP poll strategy.
However, the credit of bringing the OBC vote bank politics to centre stage in the state goes to the Congress Party. It was, in fact, former Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh Digvijay Singh who took cognizance of the strength of this class of voters, who had been rather neglected in electoral politics until then. He tapped this potential vote bank by extending 14 per cent reservations to OBCs and formed government twice in succession. After 2003 elections, he put in place an agenda to empower Dalits and his government implemented reservations in government contracts and purchase orders to Scheduled Castes and Tribes. The Congress lost its base among the OBC in the next elections and BJP formed the government under the leadership of Uma Bharti, an OBC herself. Recognizing the community as a kingmaker, the BJP appointed OBC leaders like Babulal Gaur and Shivraj Singh Chouhan as chief ministers of the state in this order. Chouhan is the longest-serving BJP chief minister among the OBC. The BJP has won elections thrice by putting Chouhan at the forefront. He is serving the fourth term as Chief Minister. Although Chouhan has carved out for himself an image of a popular leader, especially among women and the youth as Mamu, this image cultivated through government schemes and social engineering programmes could not secure him a clean sweep in 2018 elections. Chouhan and the BJP strategists have, thus, made this strategy of wooing OBCs to their camp, rather than relying on communal polarization.
However, if there is any politician the BJP should thank for bringing the OBC discourse in the state electoral politics, it is Kamal Nath. The veteran Congress Party leader, just before the 2019 parliamentary elections, promised to extend 27 per cent reservations to OBCs in government jobs and local body elections. It did not help the party, though. It nonetheless made the OBCs aware of the issue and the empowerment it could bring to them as a community. This development gave rise to all sorts of gamesmanship among the political outfits with regard to reservations in three-layered local body elections. The issue assumed so much significance that Chouhan was forced to promise local elections with OBC reservations.
Both the Congress Party and the BJP are competing with each other while taking credit for the Supreme Court verdict in favour of OBC reservations in local body elections.
“We did not expect the Shivraj government to work for the welfare of OBCs … therefore, we have already decided that the Congress would extend 27 per cent reservation to OBCs in local body elections and we will ensure them all rights. We will fulfil our promise come what may. We are committed to ensuring 27 per cent reservation to OBCs and we will fight for it,” said the Kamal Nath after the Court verdict.