Law Kumar Mishra
PATNA: Hit by the reservations sting in 2015 assembly elections, BJP today contested the chief minister and JDU national president, Nitish Kumar promise to have population proportionate reservations.
Nitish Kumar while speaking at an election rally in Tirhut on Thursday suggested there should be reservations proportionate to the population of different castes. “There is no second opinion about it,” the Chief Minister said.
This promise of the chief minister upset the BJP that is a partner in the NDA led by Nitish Kumar.
Union law, justice and IT minister Ravishankar Prasad clarified the stand of the BJP and said BJP would not deviate from the present constitutional provisions on reservations. There cannot be any action independent to the provisions in the Constitution. There will be no dilution. BJP will not be drawn into any controversy on reservation issue.
BJP reacted swiftly to the promise of the chief minister as it feared the upper castes voters may shift their loyalty from the party as done in 2015 assembly elections. Forward castes are considered the key vote bank of BJP in Bihar.
In 2015, during the peak of the campaign, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat had issued a statement recommending “review” f the reservation policy. RJD president Lalu Prasad who was on bail then, made it a major election issue and in his speeches told the RJD workers if BJP was voted to power, reservations of the SC,ST,OBC and EBC would be abolished. This resulted into polarisation of the OBC and EBC votes against the BJP and it lost the elections to then Grand Alliance of RJD and JDU.
BJP in 2015 had tried to clear the view after few days of Bhagwat’s statement was published and exploited by Lalu Prasad. But, by then damage was done. However, the BJP reacted swiftly on latest statement of Nitish Kumar.
Second phase of elections in 94 constituencies on November 3 is being held in the North Bihar districts having sizable forward caste voters, particularly Brahmins and Rajputs.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be addressing four election meetings in Sunday in four places, Motihari, Bagaha, Chapra and Samastipur. Out of the four, except Samastipur, the remaining three are considered forward castes dominated areas with Brahmins and Rajputs overshadowing other castes. Nitish Kumar’s statement on change in reservation criteria was made in Valmikinagar in Bagaha where all major parties have fielded Brahmins as their candidates.
