BHUBANESWAR: Buoyed over by the successful social engineering in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, the BJP national executive meeting on Sunday sought to play the OBC card, as a separate resolution was passed by the conclave condemning the Congress and other Opposition parties for stalling the legislative proposal to give Constitutional status to the Commission for Other Backward Castes (OBCs).
"The national executive hailed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for giving the Cabinet nod to the legislative proposal to accord Constitutional status to the OBC Commission on the lines of a similar body for SCs/STs. Lok Sabha MP Hukum Dev Narayan Yadav moved the resolution on new OBC commission, which was seconded by Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh chief ministers Raghubar Das and Shivraj Singh Chouhan respectively," Union Minister Prakash Javdekar told reporters, while adding that the Modi government's initiative was in response to the demands of all the OBC MPs belonging to several political parties for granting Constitutional status to the Commission.
Javdekar added that even while the Lok Sabha passed the bill with overwhelming support, the Opposition parties, including Congress, sought to delay the passage in the Rajya Sabha by getting the bill referred to the select committee of the House.
BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra claimed that the passage of the bill would allow OBCs in the state lists to also get into the Centre list. Incidentally, Jats have been agitating in Haryana for inclusion in the Central OBC list.
The National Executive of the BJP also passed a political resolution in which the pro-poor agenda of the Modi government was hailed by the party.
"The pro-poor political plank has shifted to the BJP from the Congress on account of the trust of the people in the leadership of the Prime Minister, besides the achievements of the government in delivering the benefits of the Central schemes," said Javdekar.