Amidst roars of pro-quota agitation of the powerful Patel community in the State, the Opposition Congress is all set to move a Bill in the upcoming Budget Session of Gujarat Assembly for reservation based on economic criterion and not caste.
The budget session of assembly will be initiated today. The grand old party has already announced its support to agitating Patidar. As per the proposed private bill, the congress party plans to demand 20 per cent reservation in Government jobs and educational institutions to those hailing from economically weaker sections irrespective of their castes.
Strategically the Congress party tried to keep its traditional Dalit vote bank intact as in a communiqué, the party said that the proposed 20 per cent quota would be over and above the present 49 per cent allocation for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes.
The Congress had already made a policy announcement to this effect and that the party president Sonia Gandhi had also stated in January 2014 that the people hailing from economically weaker sections of the society should get quota benefits.
According to the senior Congress leader and former president of Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC), his party supports the pro-reservation agitation by young Patel leader Hardik Patel but it favours quota for economically weaker sections that lose out on the opportunity to grow with the others.
Gujarat Congress spokesperson Manish Doshi said that the opposition party does not wish to disturb the 49 per cent for people getting reservation benefits on caste basis since they already face a double whammy of being economically weak.
Talking about his party’s strategy Doshi said that by moving the bill Congress would like to make a firm statement of the stance taken by the party on the economically weaker section belonging across the castes. He further said that once Congress would move the bill in the House, they would be in ruling BJP’s court whether to support it or not.
“In case if it does not. BJP will be exposed along with those who are spearheading the agitation for reservations. With this, the Congress party has come clean with its position,” he said that sedition charges against the jailed convener of Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) Hardik Patel should be dropped by the State Government.