BJP aims to woo back core voters by announcing reservation for upper castes

Vibha Sharma
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, January 7

The Narendra Modi government has made the mother of all political moves ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections by announcing a Constitution amendment Bill to provide 10 per cent reservation for economically weaker sections amongst the upper class.  

The Bill is expected to be moved in the Lok Sabha, where the BJP-led NDA enjoys a majority, tomorrow, the last working day of the Winter Session. 

Interestingly, the Bill will be introduced in the House by Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Thawar Chand Gehlot, a leader belonging to a Scheduled Caste community.

The move is not only expected to assuage perceptibly unhappy ‘swarn jatis’, the downside of which the BJP experienced in recent assembly elections in the Hindi belt, especially in Madhya Pradesh, but also take forward the long-pending mandate of ideological fountainhead RSS—reservation based on economic criteria.

With this masterstroke, the BJP hopes to woo back core voters and also throw off guard the lead opposition Congress which has been trying to corner the party-led government in the Centre by raising issues such as the Rafale fighter jet deal.

BJP leaders in fact say that they are “waiting to see how the grand old party reacts to the Bill in the House tomorrow”.

Any move to thwart it will only work in the favour of the BJP like the Triple Talaq legislation, they claim.

The provision would apply to all upper castes, including  Brahmins, Rajputs, Banias, as well as Jats who are not covered under the reservation for the Other Backward Classes, said a senior party leader. 

And on whether the Muslims will be covered by the legislation, he said it would be “caste agnostic”. 

Explaining the idea behind the move, he said “affirmative action for such classes has been denied till now. If the Congress or other party opposes it, they would actually be doing us a favour.”

On whether the Supreme Court’s upper limit of 50 per cent on reservations can apply to the Bill, he said it (apex court) “cannot fetter the Parliament”.

While the Opposition may dismiss it as an election gimmick, the government believes the move covering as much as 60 per cent of upper castes, will actually help those in need of such a provision.

Coming within weeks before the country steps into the election mode, it is being seen as a factor that could tip the scales in favour of the BJP, whose core voters belong to the upper castes.  

Currently, there is no such reservation in the general category and even if the Bill gets stuck in Parliament, the message would be immense, accruing big political gains given prevailing perceptions in the upper castes that the BJP is only interested in OBCs and SC/STs because of their immense vote bank.