Women’s Reservation vs OBC: Whose bet will be successful between BJP and Congress?

With the murmur of Women’s Reservation Bill, Congress had started playing the OBC tune. Speaking as the first speaker of the opposition parties in the Lok Sabha, former national president of the Congress, Sonia Gandhi, along with calling women’s reservation the dream of her husband and former Prime Minister of the country Rajiv Gandhi, also asked the Government of India to conduct a caste census on Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. Demanded to advance women belonging to tribal and OBC i.e. other backward classes by giving them reservation. Although under the policy of quota within quota, the government has included in its Women’s Reservation Bill a proposal to reserve 33 percent of the seats already reserved for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes for women, but reservation for women from the OBC community has not been done. The government’s argument is very clear that currently there is a provision for reservation in the Constitution only for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes along with the general category, hence no arrangement can be made different from this at present.

Responding in the Rajya Sabha to the issues of OBC census and reservation raised by Rahul Gandhi in the Lok Sabha, JP Nadda said that Congress has more OBC MPs in the Lok Sabha than the Congress. Nadda said that BJP gave India its first OBC in the form of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. 85 Lok Sabha MPs of BJP are from OBC community. 27 percent of BJP MLAs and 40 percent of MLCs also come from OBC community.

Actually, the truth is that both the political parties BJP and Congress understand the importance of women voters as well as OBC voters very well. It is also a well-known fact that generally women voters go beyond the limits of caste and vote on other issues, that is, women voters do not think only about caste like male voters while pressing the button of EVM. Therefore, BJP has played a big gamble regarding women voters. BJP feels that it has given a lot to the OBC community so far and it has a lot to give in the coming days also. BJP also feels that if the move to pass the Women’s Reservation Bill goes well, then BJP can not only break its record in the electoral history of the country but can also surpass Rajiv Gandhi’s record of 1984. Therefore, BJP is going to launch a big campaign in the coming days to reach out to the voters of the country regarding the Women’s Reservation Bill.

On the other hand, Congress, which is desperate to defeat Narendra Modi at any cost in 2024, is trying to gamble on women voters as well as OBC voters. However, this fight seems to be more between its allies like RJD and SP than Congress. Considering the influence of BJP, especially Prime Minister Narendra Modi, among the women voters of the country and other castes belonging to OBC community except the influential OBC section, Congress strategists are feeling that it is impossible to defeat Modi without making a dent in it, hence Congress Has launched the campaign at many levels simultaneously. Rahul Gandhi and Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge are continuously saying that as soon as they come to power, they will implement women’s reservation with immediate effect and will also open the way for reservation for the OBC community by conducting caste census.

Obviously, on one side there is BJP which has full confidence in its bet of women’s reservation and on the other side there is Congress which is focusing more on OBC voters through the demand of caste census along with wooing women voters. In such a situation, at present this electoral battle between BJP and Congress seems to be turning more into a bet of women’s reservation versus OBC.

-Santosh Pathak

(The author is a senior journalist and columnist.)