Panel recommends quota within OBC, SC/ST quota

A new caste equation may emerge in Uttar Pradesh ahead of the next Lok Sabha polls in 2019.

A government appointed Committee has recommended quotas within the OBC and SC/ST quota, which many political experts say may benefit the BJP.

The Most Backward Social Justice Committee, which was formed to look into the issue, submitted its report to the state government on Tuesday.

According to sources, the Committee has recommended division of the OBC category in three sections comprising ''backward, very backward and most backward''.

The OBC quota of 27% should be divided equally among theses three new categories, it recommended.

Similarly the committee also recommended dividing the SC/ST category into three sections comprising ''Dalit, Ati Dalit and Maha Dalit''.

It recommended that the first two categories be given 7% reservation each and the third one the remaining 8 %.

Sources said that the report was with Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, who would take a decision after consulting alliance partners.

The Opposition Samajwadi Party (SP), however, slammed the BJP over the Committee report saying that it was an attempt to further divide the society along caste lines to gain electoral mileage.

''It is nothing but a ploy to garner votes by sowing seeds of divisions within the OBC and SC/ST ranks. It will boomerang on the BJP,'' said SP leader Sunil Singh in Lucknow.

Uttar Pradesh minister Ashutosh Tandon said that the BJP believed in social equality and that there was no hidden motive behind the report.