Nearly a year into his second term as Uttar Pradesh chief minister, Yogi Adityanath has overcome a serious hurdle, which has suddenly raised the caste count of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), especially the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in the state. The equation was put in jeopardy. ,
On the allegation of the opposition of hatching a conspiracy to eliminate backward caste reservation in urban body elections, the government is now preparing to make a systematic allocation of reservation on the basis of the dedicated report constituted by the dedicated OBC commission. To consider reservation for backward castes.
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Earlier in December, the government had faced severe backlash from the opposition after the High Court struck down the OBC reservation announced by the government. The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court had rejected the government’s argument on the ground that it had failed to follow the “triple test procedure” for deciding reservation. This process, often referred to as the “TTT” test, was laid down by the Supreme Court in one of its judgments in 2021.
In this order of the apex court, it was said that the state needs to adopt a certain scientific process to decide the reservation for OBCs in various urban bodies in the state. The first step in this process should be the setting up of a dedicated OBC commission. The Yogi government has dropped the move to look into backward caste reservation before announcing the first elections in November last year.
As the government had violated an important step of the procedure defined by the Supreme Court, the announced reservation and the proposed election were challenged in the High Court. The High Court then refused to accept the fixed quota and on 27 December ordered the government to go ahead with the urban body elections without OBC reservation.
The inability to secure the OBC quota in the urban elections came as a major embarrassment for the Yogi government. This threatened to seriously impact the BJP’s caste calculus and the strong inroads it had made over the years among OBCs, especially non-Yadav castes.
If the situation was not saved, the party’s calculations in the long run for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls could also have been threatened.
Yogi saved the situation
After the setback from the High Court and amid mounting attacks from political opponents, the UP CM wasted no time. The very next day of the verdict, he announced that the government would not conduct urban body elections without OBC reservation and that the government would challenge the order in the Supreme Court. On the same day, a dedicated OBC commission was constituted under the chairmanship of retired High Court judge Ram Avtar Singh to study OBC reservation for local bodies.
The five-member commission was given six months to complete its work. After this, the government also filed a petition in the apex court against the order of the High Court. The Supreme Court had then stayed the HC order to hold elections without OBC reservation. This came as a big relief to both the Yogi government and the ruling BJP.
The Justice Singh-led commission moved quickly and was able to complete its work in less than three months. It submitted its report to the UP CM on March 9, following which the report was also presented before the state cabinet held on Friday and subsequently adopted.
Election soon with new reservation
With the first implementation of the procedural step defined by the Supreme Court in the form of the Commission’s report, the way is now clear for the government to announce new reservations for OBCs.
As per the apex court order, no state government can give one-time reservation, it should be proportionate from one urban body to another on the basis of population ratio. However, the prescribed formula of TTT also clarifies that in no case this OBC reservation can exceed 27%.
Professor Prashant Trivedi of Giri Institute of Development Studies explained: “Proportional representation means that if a particular urban body has 15% OBC population, the backward caste reservation there cannot exceed 15%. However, if a particular body has stated more than 27% of its population as OBC, then there the upper limit of 27% reservation will apply. As per Supreme Court guidelines, reservation for SC/ST and OBC taken together cannot exceed 50%.
Meanwhile, speaking to News18, Ram Avtar Singh said, “The commission in its findings has highlighted the shortcomings of the reservation system of the past. In many cases, the data was altered to give desired reservations, perhaps to suit particular leaders. Some cases like Yadavs were over-represented as compared to OBCs.
Meanwhile, after being adopted by the state cabinet, sources say that the government is now all set to approach the Supreme Court and file a report in the next few days. The matter is listed for April 11. By informing the development court, the government may seek permission to expedite the hearing and hold local body elections at the earliest.
There are 762 urban local bodies in Uttar Pradesh, of which 17 are municipal corporations, 200 municipalities and over 500 nagar panchayats. Sources say that the government may start the exercise of announcing the new reservation within a week.
With the reservation battle won, the ruling BJP is sure to claim justice for the OBCs, which is almost certain to reverberate in the coming year in the mega electoral battle for the Lok Sabha.
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