New Delhi: With the Congress hoping for other backward classes (OBC) consolidation in its favour in Gujarat and Karnataka, the BJP is likely to play up the opposition party’s decision to stall the Modi government’s OBC commission bill in Parliament to counter it in the two poll-bound states.
A day after the Congress received a boost with the decision of Gujarat OBC leader Alpesh Thakore to join the party, BJP sources sought to play down its impact, saying Thakore is an untested electoral player.
“Unlike the Congress, we have a string of well-entrenched community leaders across Gujarat. We could not have conceded so much to an outsider as the Congress, which has been out of power for over 22 years and has seen desertion by its top leaders,” a BJP leader said, noting that Prime Minister Narendra Modi also hails from an OBC caste.
A key pro-OBC plank of the saffron party in the western state will be a bill that the central government had brought in Parliament in the Monsoon Session, seeking to give constitutional status to the OBC commission, putting it at par with the SC and ST commissions.
The BJP will also highlight the decision to raise the creamy layer cap for OBC families to Rs 8 lakh from Rs 6 lakh, and then to form a commission to look into sub-categorisation of OBC quota.
The constitutional amendment bill, however, could not be passed as the Congress stalled it in the Rajya Sabha.
