MUMBAI: After Monday’s SC verdict, local body polls slated for 105 nagar panchayats and the zilla parishads of Bhandara and Gondia and their panchayat samitis slated on December 21 will go ahead, except in the seats which had been reserved for OBCs.
“The polls will go ahead in open category seats and those reserved for SCs and STs which would constitute around 75-80% of the total seats,” said state election commissioner UPS Madan. “For seats which had been reserved for OBCs after the ordinance, we will await the final SC verdict since this is an interim order,” he added. The next hearing is on December 13.
The court’s stay on the 27% political reservation for OBCs in local body polls following an ordinance issued by the government in September has come has a major setback to the ruling parties.
The opposition BJP accused the government of “fooling” the OBC community and said it will not allow the local body elections to go ahead without the quota. “The SC had asked for empirical data on OBCs to be collected. Instead of ensuring this, the government brought out an ordinance that did not stick,” said state BJP president Chandrakant Patil.
Food and civil supplies minister Chhagan Bhujbal, who belongs to the OBC community, said the government had tried its best. “We asked the Centre for empirical data. Then we set up a Backward Class commission to gather empirical data,” said Bhujbal. State OBC affairs minister Vijay Wadettiwar said, “There is a conspiracy which is working against the OBC community getting the reservation.”
In March, SC had quashed the 27% reservation for OBCs in Maharashtra’s local bodies on the grounds that the reservations, combined with those for SCs and STs, exceeded the 50% quota limit. The OBC quota could only be permitted after empirical data on the community was collected and if the 50% quota limit was not crossed, SC had said.
In September, the state had issued an ordinance allowing for the OBC quota in rural bodies with the rider that once combined with the SC and ST reservations, the combined quota will not cross the 50% limit. Also, that the OBC quota would not cross 27% of the seats, in keeping with the existing state legislation. The SC ruling overrides the ordinance.
