The shift is already evident in Madhya Pradesh, where OBCs have started to move away from saffron parties
Post Date – 12:10 AM, Tuesday – 12/06/22
representative image
Hyderabad: With other backward class (OBC) communities threatening to influence the state assembly elections to be held in the states in 2023 and 2024, the BJP leadership is fretting over the slow movement of these communities away from the party. The state of BJP rule has already left the party’s Telangana wing thinking about how to stem the tide.
This shift is already evident in Madhya Pradesh, where the OBC has moved away from saffron parties. The OBC community, which had supported the BJP since 2003, turned to Congress for the first time in 2018, leaving the BJP without a simple majority. It was only able to seize power after plotting a defection in Congress two years later.
With a parliamentary vote scheduled for next year in the state, the BJP leadership once again appeared concerned that they could not afford to lose this time. The OBC accounts for about 48% of the MP electorate and more than 100 of the state’s total 230 assembly seats have a sizable share of the OBC vote, explaining Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s desperate efforts to win back the OBC s hard work.
The Saffron Party does give OBC community leaders greater representation than other parties in electoral contests and has won power by a sizeable margin in the past, but since their switch to Congress in 2018, the party leadership has been They looked uncomfortable as their votes determined the formation of the state government.
Moreover, apart from Congress and other political opponents, the BJP now has a new organization to contend with, the OBC Mahasabha, a Madhya Pradesh-based organization with a pan-India network. The group is believed to have played a crucial role in the 2018 parliamentary vote, shifting OBC votes from the BJP to Congress. In the 2023 polls, the OBC Mahasabha is likely to play a decisive role in deciding the next government.
Even in Gujarat, the OBC is unhappy with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party because it has failed to deliver on many of its promises to these communities, including retaining 10 percent in local body elections. Poll analysts believe that a large number of OBC will vote against the BJP in the ongoing assembly vote in Gujarat.
The situation of BJP domination of the country has prompted the BJP’s state arm in Telangana to take notice, with Rajya Sabha member and BJP OBC state chairman Morcha K Laxman asking party leaders here to initiate an outreach program to attract the OBC community to the party. When campaigning for the party in rural areas, the heads of the party’s state units, districts, manders and constituencies have been clearly informed to target the OBC community.
However, Telangana BC Council Chairman V Krishna Mohan Rao believes that the BJP’s efforts to win BC will be futile as they have cooperated with Telangana Rashtra Samithi (now Bharat Rashtra Samithi) from the beginning and will continue to do so in the future.
“BC is happy with the TRS government. They have benefited from the welfare and development programs introduced by the government. BC will always support K Chandrashekhar Rao,” he said.
