TARGETING OBC VOTES, BJP INDUCTS NCP’S SURAJ YADAV

Eyeing to make inroads into the significant votebank constituted by the OBC, the Delhi BJP on Monday included NCP leader Suraj Yadav into the party fold.Yadav, who inherits the legacy of social engineering from his grandfather

BP Mandal, the chairman of the Mandal Commission, is expected to garner support from a large number of OBC voters residing across the national Capital.The Delhi-based leader had been active in student politics in Delhi University as he had also been the vice president of ABVP in Delhi from 1988-1991.

The Other Backward Classes (OBC) constitute nearly 30 per cent of the total votes in trans-Yamuna area while their population is as high as 50 per cent in the South and South-Western parts of the Capital. The overall population of OBCs in Delhi is nearly 44 per cent excluding the Jats that constitutes seven per cent of the total votes.

Including the Jat population, the total population of OBCs goes up to 51 per cent. The community has so far been the traditional votebank of the ruling Congress and hence, the BJP is leaving no stone unturned to eat into the vote share of the Congress. As the BJP leaders put it, the party would replicate the social engineering formula in Delhi that had led to a nationwide revolution in

the late 1970s with recommendations of the Mandal Commission, for a significant proportion of all Government and educational institutions, to be reserved for applicants from the Other Backward Classes.

An associate professor of History in Delhi University’s Shradhanand College, Yadav may also be assigned the responsibility of connecting with OBC students and teachers, particularly the migrants, who were immensely benefited with the recommendations of the Mandal Commission. “There has to be a uniform representation of all sections in the social justice groups. BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate, Narendra Modi’s model of development aims at overall inclusive growth,” Yadav told The Pioneer explaining his reason to join the BJP after he had switched to the NCP. Yadav had earlier contested the Lok Sabha Polls from his hometown Madhepura in 1999 against two political heavyweights — Sharad Yadav and Lalu Prasad Yadav — both belonging to the OBC communities.

Source: DP