The Supreme Court’s decision to allow local body elections in Madhya Pradesh with OBC reservation has caused consternation among leaders of the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance, who have questioned why the same rules were not applicable to the state.
Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole on Wednesday sought to know what “miracle” happened in the last four days that the SC allowed the MP government to hold local bodies elections with reservation for the Other Backward Classes (OBCs).
Speaking to reporters, Patole claimed that while Maharashtra has been fighting to restore political reservation of OBCs for the last two years, the Central government has been constantly creating obstructions and has refused to provide the empirical data required for reservation.
“The Supreme Court has allowed the Madhya Pradesh government to hold elections with OBC reservation, but it seems to have taken a different stance in Maharashtra’s case. In the last hearing, instructions given to Maharashtra were also given to Madhya Pradesh,” Patole said.
On Wednesday, the apex court, which had passed an order on May 10 and noted that no reservation for OBCs can be provisioned until the triple test formality is completed “in all respects” by the state government, permitted MP to notify the reservation pattern local body wise as delineated in the reports of the dedicated commission.
“What data did the Madhya Pradesh government provide that satisfied the Supreme Court? Did the Central government give that data to the Madhya Pradesh government?” the Congress leader asked.
He further said that the party will study the copy of the Supreme Court order and decide on the next course of action.
“The Congress has been constantly fighting for the reservation of the OBCs. Unfortunately, the BJP wants to politicise the issue and deprive the community in Maharashtra of the right to reservation. However, the elections in the state will be held with OBC reservation,” Patole said.
Leaders of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), too, said that the SC ruling should be applicable to Maharashtra as well.
“In Madhya Pradesh, the Supreme Court has approved the OBC reservation. Then why doesn’t this same ruling apply to Maharashtra?” NCP leader and Maharashtra Housing Minister Jitendra Awhad tweeted.
NCP minister Chhagan Bhujbal said he was hopeful that the SC decision would pave the way for Maharashtra to hold elections with OBC reservations as well.
“Maharashtra has taken many steps in giving reservation to OBCs. This will be later applicable for the country. We will also take steps,” Bhujbal said.
Sena spokesperson Manisha Kayande said, “We welcome the SC decision. But four days ago, a non-BJP state like Maharashtra got one ruling and on Wednesday, a BJP-ruled state like Madhya Pradesh got a ruling keeping the OBC reservation for local self government polls. MVA did everything for saving OBC reservation but Center did not cooperate, and did not share their empirical data. We are working on our data. We have to see how the MP data was accepted and ours rejected.”
The BJP, meanwhile, criticized the MVA with former CM Devendra Fadnavis blaming “the incompetence of the MVA government in Maharashtra” for OBCs being denied reservation in local body elections in state. The ministers in the MVA government “who failed to get the OBC quota” should resign, he said.
“OBC reservation would have been implemented in the state had the Maharashtra government done the triple test on time,” Fadnavis said.
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