Amit Shah and Naib Saini at the OBC honor convention
Gurjar, Yadav, Lodh, Saini, Koeri, Kushwaha and Meo… these are the castes for which the Nayab Singh Saini government of Haryana has made changes in the reservation system of panchayat and civic elections. These OBC B-category castes will now get 5 percent reservation in panchayat and civic elections in Haryana. Union Home Minister Amit Shah made this announcement during the OBC convention in Mahendragarh on Tuesday.
Interestingly, the implementation of sub-quota among OBC castes in Haryana’s panchayat and civic elections was arranged by the previous BJP’s Manohar Lal Khattar government. At that time, the Khattar government had given reservation only to the A-category, saying that this would bring political equality to all OBC castes.
In such a situation, the question is, why did the BJP government need to change its decision after just one year?
Which castes are in backward class B-block?
According to Haryana government’s Backward Classes Commission, Ahir/Yadav, Gurjar, Lodha/Lodha/Lodhi, Saini, Sakya, Kori, Kushwaha, Maurya, Meo and Gosai/Gosain/Goswami castes fall into this category.
While as many as 72 castes have been included in A-category. The government has already given 8 percent reservation to A-category in panchayat and civic body elections. Now it has been decided to give 5 percent reservation to B category castes as well.
This decision of the government will benefit these castes in panchayat and municipal elections. Haryana has about 6200 Panchayats, 11 Municipal Corporations and 55 City Panchayats.
Why is everyone’s government kind to these castes?
The population of OBC castes in Haryana to whom the government has decided to give reservation under B-category is about 16 percent. Yadavs and Ahirs are the most numerous among them, about 7 percent, Gurjars 4.5 percent.
Apart from this Saini population is about 2 percent, Koiri, Kushwaha and Maurya population is 2 percent. These castes account for more than one-third of the total OBC castes in the state. OBC castes constitute about 42 percent of the state’s population.
There are 3 reasons why the Saini government is kind to them-
1. When the BJP came to government in 2014, it started working on a Jat and non-Jat strategy. Under this, BJP has handed over the command of the state to Manohar Lal Khattar, a non-Jat face. After Khattar, Naib Singh Saini became the Chief Minister of the state.
Even in the Modi cabinet, the three leaders from Haryana (Manohar Lal Khattar, Krishnapal Gurjar and Rao Indrajit Singh) are non-Jat faces. Interestingly, all three belong to the non-Jat OBC community.
2. In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, BJP has been hit by Jats and other OBC castes. According to CSDS, the BJP got only 44 percent of the votes from the OBC castes in Haryana’s Lok Sabha elections. Which is 29 percent less than last election. While 51 percent of OBC castes voted in favor of Congress.
Compared to last time, Jats also seemed unhappy with BJP. This time the party got only 27 percent of the Jat votes, which was 23 percent less than in 2019. To rectify this equation, the party has decided to give reservation to the B category of OBCs.
3. In the Lok Sabha elections held in Haryana, the BJP got a lead in only 44 assembly seats. While India Alliance has got lead in 46 seats. Haryana has a total of 90 assembly seats and any party needs at least 46 seats to get a majority.
The voting pattern of Legislative Assembly is different as compared to Lok Sabha. During the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP won all 10 seats, but could not secure an absolute majority on its own in the assembly elections.
BJP could get only 40 seats. The party is scared of this result and is trying to fix the equation before the elections.
