The Allahabad High Court order quashing an Uttar Pradesh government notification that brought 18 Other Backward Class communities in the list of Scheduled Castes has come as a big setback for the Samajwadi Party.
The opposition party had drawn big plans for mobilisation of non-Yadav OBCs across the state ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha election to bolster its position. The SP had planned to mobilise the OBCs by raising the demand for caste-based census.
The castes which the Samajwadi Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party governments intended to shift to the SC category are Majhwar, Kahar, Kashyap, Kewat, Mallah, Nishad, Kumhar, Prajapati, Dheevar, Bind, Bhar, Rajbhar, Dhiman, Batham, Turha, Godia, Manjhi and Machchhua.
Following the High Court order, the SP is raising accusing fingers at the BJP. SP leader Rajpal Kashyap, without offering evidence, claimed that the BJP government was behind the petition on which the High Court acted.
“The Yogi Adityanath government is taking away the rights of the OBCs. Our leader Akhilesh Yadav had got the notification issued after much discussion. Where are those BJP leaders who do politics of backward castes and the leaders of their allies? An answer is needed from the BJP government for adverse court judgement,” he said.
The former MLC claimed that these 18 castes had always been with the SP, which stood with them.
Akhilesh Yadav on Friday tweeted that “the BJP gave “lollipops”’ to these castes but did not keep its promise to them. It termed it a “complete betrayal” of the 18 “most backward castes”. He however deleted the tweet after some time as it was countered by the BJP asking “the status of non-Yadav OBCs in Samajwadi Party”.
As per the constitutional provisions, under Article 341 only the Centre has the authority to include new caste in Scheduled Caste category and new tribe in Scheduled Tribe list under Article 342. The decision of the Centre is based on the recommendation of the Anthropological Survey of India (ASI). The ASI, since 2006, has rejected thrice the UP government’s recommendation for inclusion of 18 OBCs in the Scheduled Castes list. The ASI maintained that the 18 OBC castes failed to pass the criterion of untouchability.
An Allahabad High Court bench of Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal and Justice JJ Munir had on Wednesday allowed a petition that challenged the notifications issued in 2016 and 2019, and annulled the inclusion of 18 OBCs in the Scheduled Castes list.
The notification for inclusion of 18 OBC castes in the Scheduled Caste list was first issued by the Mulayam Singh Yadav government in 2005 and it was stayed by the Allahabad High Court.
The same notification was issued again by his son Akhilesh Yadav’s government in 2016. The Yogi Adityanath government followed this practice and issued the notification in 2019, even when the Allahabad High Court had earlier quashed the two notifications.
The OBCs account for almost half of the population of the country’s most populous state and play a decisive role in deciding the outcome on most of its 80 Lok Sabha seats. As parties gear up for 2024, the inclusion – or not – of some OBC communities that seek benefits available to the Scheduled Castes is likely to become a factor.
The SP, which considers Yadavs as its support base, has been keen to expand its influence among the voters from other OBC castes. Ahead of 2022 UP Assembly elections, the SP had forged alliances with smaller caste-based parties -- Apna Dal (Kamerwadi), Mahan Dal, Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party and Jat dominated Rashtriya Lok Dal. Jats are included in the OBC list in UP. Mulayam Singh Yadav in 2005 had issued the notification with the objective of denting the support base of the Bahujan Samaj Party representing the Dalit community.
The BJP had different objectives for issuing this notification as it intended to spread its influence among the non-Yadav OBCs. During the last four elections -- two Lok Sabha and two UP Assembly polls -- the BJP has concentrated its attention on wooing the non-Yadav OBCs and succeeded in making inroads in OBC vote banks of the Samajwadi Party.
The ruling BJP has been working on garnering the support of non-Yadav OBC castes since the 2014 Lok Sabha elections in UP. The Apna Dal (Sonelal) and the NISHAD Party are now its allies in the state. Of late, it seems to have also weaned away Om Prakash Rajbhar’s Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party (SBSP) and Shivpal Singh Yadav’s Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (Lohia) from the SP-led opposition fold.