The BJP government in Karnataka is not likely to hold municipal polls for Bengaluru and taluk and zila panchayats before the end of its tenure in 2023 on account of lack of data for reservations for “Other Backward Castes” (OBC) as mandated by the Supreme Court in an order issued on January 19 on OBC quota for local polls in Maharashtra.
The polls are due by over a year in the state. “We are not in the favour of conducting polls if it causes injustice to the OBC communities,” Karnataka’s rural development minister KS Eshwarappa told the state legislative council last week.
The rural development minister, who belongs to the sizable OBC Kuruba community, said: “In Maharashtra, they had an election on the basis of existing reservations, including OBC reservations. This was challenged in the Supreme Court and an order issued on January 19 said it was wrong to reserve seats for OBCs and that reservations should have been only for the SC/ST categories. The court quashed the results of OBC seats and declared them as general seats.”
He said: “We want reservation for OBCs also in the local polls. We are holding discussions with the chairman of the backward classes commission. We are discussing how to hold elections with reservations for the OBCs. In a few days, we are going to sit with legal experts to hold discussions,” Eshwarappa said.
In Karnataka, local polls have been traditionally held with 33 per cent reservation for OBCs and 18 per cent for SC/STs. In Maharashtra, the OBC quota was 27 per cent and the SC/ST quota 18 per cent.
The opposition Congress party in Karnataka is now demanding that the BJP use data from a caste census conducted by the Kantharaj commission and the state backward classes commission during the tenure of the Congress government between 2013-2018 to conduct local polls with OBC quota.
The caste census data report from the tenure of the Congress government has not been accepted by the Congress itself, a subsequent JDS-Congress coalition and the current BJP government from fears that the data is not in line with the consensus on the strengths of various caste groups in Karnataka.
“There are fears in political circles that the numbers of some groups are inflated in the Census and that there may be a backlash from dominant castes whose numbers are lower than perceived,” sources said.
“The BJP government must accept the report of the survey conducted by the backward classes department. They should use the report to argue before the Supreme Court and ensure social justice for the backward classes. There is no need for a separate survey to be done since the survey conducted during my tenure is readily available,” said former Congress CM Siddaramaiah, who belongs to the OBC Kuruba community.