BJP's OBC push

With BJP set to name candidates for 100 seats on Saturday, the focus will be on ensuring an adequate number of OBC faces.

New Delhi: As the BJP’s Central Election Committee is set to convene on Saturday, where 100 seats are likely to be announced, the focus will be on ensuring an adequate number of OBC faces.

This, senior leaders said, is part of the party’s efforts among a slew of initiatives to counter the Opposition’s demand for a caste census.

Centreing some of the initiatives in Bihar, from where the Opposition had rallied behind the caste census demand with the state census, the OBC Morcha of the party has set out to conduct 10,000 samajik sammelans (social conferences) across the country –  including 20 in each Parliamentary seat.  

Leaders of the party’s OBC wing said that the sammelans were meant to bring caste and group leaders of OBC communities on one platform, where the BJP leaders could tell them what the Modi government had done for them in the past decade. “And also show them a comparative analysis of what the UPA did not do for them,” said Rajya Sabha MP K Laxman, president of the OBC unit.

He added that in Bihar’s Patliputra seat, the wing held one of the biggest such sammelans where they mobilised over a lakh people. The seat, which has over 38% OBC – 6.4 lakh among a total electorate of 16.5 lakh – has former Lalu Prasad Yadav aide Ram Kirpal Yadav as the sitting MP from BJP.

Laxman added that of the 10,000 such sammelans, the aim is to have three such in each assembly segment and 20 in every Lok sabha seat; he adds that the party has already carried out more than 6,000 such meets.

“We are also seeking out beneficiaries and prospective beneficiaries of our welfare schemes from the OBC communities,” he said, adding that the PM Vishwakarma scheme, PM Matsya Sampada scheme and Scheme for Venture Capital Fund for OBCs have emerged to be popular among the community. In addition to this, Laxman said that the in each district, the wing is also holding youth OBC meets to reach out to young voters; more than 400 such meets have already been conducted.

The OBC wing of the party has sought to strike a caste balance in the candidate lists, ensuring that the party fields atleast 30% OBC names. In the first BJP list of 195 candidates, 57 (or 29%) were OBCs. In the 263 seats announced till earlier this week, the party has had 30% OBC cases. In the next list, sources said, 27% of names are likely to be from the OBC community.

Almost all political parties have been trying to woo the OBC voter; a survey by the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) found that 40.94% of respondents were from the OBC community. The BJP has been favourable among the OBC, a post-election analysis of the 2019 Lok Sabha votes by the Lokniti CSDS found that 37.4% OBCs voted for the BJP, while 19.5% preferred the Congress.