BJP shedding crocodile tears on OBC reservation: Akhilesh Yadav

In a statement issued here, Akhilesh Yadav said, "BJP is shedding crocodile tears on the reservation to OBC in local body election. Today BJP has taken away the reservation rights of backward people, tomorrow it will also take away the reservation given to Dalit by Babasaheb."

He said the BJP government has not only cheated the backwards but also conspired to destroy the constitution given by Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar.

"The decision to end reservation for OBCs in civic elections is unfortunate. The facts were deliberately not presented before the court. 60 percent of the population of Uttar Pradesh has been deprived of reservation. The arbitrary process was done by the BJP only for its own benefit," he alleged.

Akhilesh said the Samajwadi Party has always fought for social justice by imbibing the ideas of Ram Manohar Lohia and former Prime Minister Chaudhary Charan Singh.

"SP demanded caste census and social justice. BJP is scared of this fight for justice by SP. Earlier, it also lied on 17 most backward castes," he said.

He said the anti-backwards intent of the BJP government has become clear.

"What the BJP is not able to do on its own, it gets it done through Public Interest Litigation (PIL). BJP's character and face has got exposed in front of the whole world. Those who used to call themselves well-wishers of the backward class are looking like bonded labourers in BJP today," he said.

Meanwhile, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath Tuesday said that the state would set up a commission to conduct a survey of OBCs on the basis of the Supreme Court guidelines to provide reservations to the community.

The election will not be held before the survey and grant of reservation, he said, adding that if required the state will challenge the Allahabad High Court's order for immediate notification of the election in the Supreme Court.

Adityanath’s comments came after the Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court, comprising Justices DK Upadhyay and Saurav Lavania, scrapped the state government’s December 5 draft notification on urban local body elections.

Earlier this month, the state issued a provisional list of reserved seats for mayors of 17 municipal corporations, chairpersons of 200 municipal councils and 545 nagar panchayats –a reservation of around 30 percent, as was provided in during the 2017 elections.

Four mayoral seats –Aligarh, Mathura-Vrindavan, Meerut and Prayagraj –were reserved for OBC candidates. Besides, chairpersons' seats in 200 municipal councils were reserved for OBCs, 147 of chairpersons' seats in 545 nagar panchayats were also reserved for OBC candidates.