Elections to OBC seats in Maharashtra stayed following Supreme Court's order

A rasta roko agitation for OBC reservation, at Dahisar check naka. File pic/Satej Shinde

The Maharashtra State Election Commission has stayed the elections to the Other Backward Classes (OBC) seats in the local self-governments, following the Supreme Court's decision of staying the state government's ordinance to ensure 27 per cent political quota for the OBCs.

"Without setting up a commission to collect data local government wise, it is not open to the State Election Commission to provide for reservation of OBC category. That is the first step which ought to have been done," the SC said on Monday. In March, the SC had scrapped the 27 per cent political quota for the OBCs, citing the breach of 50 per cent cap on reservation.

However, the seats in the open category and those reserved for other social groups will be held as scheduled. Early this year, the SC had scrapped the OBC quota in seven districts where bypolls were held later, opening the vacancies to the general category. State Election Commissioner U P S Madan said 106 nagar panchayats, two zilla parishads and 15 panchayat samitis will go to the polls on December 21. In addition, by-elections to 7,134 vacant seats are scheduled on the same day.

‘May impact civic polls'

Many in the political field said the issue, if not resolved soon, would also impact major local body elections, including BMC polls expected in February next year. Major local bodies, district councils and panchayats would go to the polls throughout 2022.

"The polls to the OBC seats will be declared as per the Supreme Court's next order," Madan said. The top court has scheduled the next hearing in the case on December 13. On December 13, the SC will also hear a separate petition by the Maharashtra government, seeking direction to the Centre and other authorities to disclose to the state the SECC (Socio-Economic and Caste Census) 2011 raw caste data of OBCs. The state has asked the Centre for the data.

In March, the SC had mandated the triple test: first, comprising a dedicated commission to conduct an empirical inquiry into the nature and implications of the backwardness; second, to specify the proportion of reservation required to be provisioned as per the Commission's recommendations, and third, in any case, to not exceed aggregate of 50 per cent of the total seats reserved in favour of SCs/STs/OBCs together.

Blame game

Political leaders from the ruling and opposition parties blamed each other for the crisis. Opposition leader Pravin Darekar alleged that the MVA was biased against the OBCs. "Why only in Maharashtra when all other states have an OBC quota," he asked, even as his party boss Chandrakant Patil demanded that the elections to all seats be postponed. NCP MP Supriya Sule and BJP MP Preetam Munde raised the issue in Lok Sabha on Tuesday.

‘Do not sit on it'

Pratibha Shinde of OBC Aarakshan Hakka Parishad and Lok Sangharsh Morcha said it was said since the beginning that the ordinance would not stand the legal scrutiny and the government could not protect the OBCs' right. "This is a great injustice to the OBCs, and it has endangered the OBC quota in education and jobs," she said in a statement, adding that early this year seven bodies did not have the OBC quota because of the SC's March order.

While slamming the Centre for not giving empirical data to the state deliberately, she said the Maharashtra government should have used the past nine months to start the work of collecting the data through the backward class commission. "The Centre has its own reasons, but the state government should have given the commission money to collect the data. The process should be completed in the next two months, either through its mechanism or local self-government."

Dec 13
Day SC will hear the quota case next

Dec 21
Day local self-govt bodies will go to polls