
NEW DELHI: Amid growing political debate over Jat votes ahead of the Delhi Assembly elections, AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal has criticised the BJP for “betraying” the Jat community in Delhi over the issue of reservation.
He demanded the inclusion of the community in the Central list of Other Backward Classes (OBC), questioning when the BJP would fulfill its promise. On Monday, Kejriwal met with a delegation of Jat leaders at his residence to discuss the issue. He emphasised that the Jat population in Delhi, estimated at around 5% of the total population, is significant in regions such as South and Outer Delhi.
Political analysts suggest that Jats are a dominant voting group in over a dozen constituencies, particularly in rural areas, where they constitute the majority in 225 out of 364 villages.
Kejriwal pointed out that while the Jat community in Delhi is included in the state’s OBC list, they remain excluded from the central OBC list, unlike their counterparts in Rajasthan. He called this exclusion “unjust,” and noted that it deprives Delhi’s Jats of reservation benefits in education and employment. Kejriwal criticized the BJP leadership for failing to deliver on their commitments, saying, “Jats from Rajasthan get reservation benefits in Delhi University and its affiliated colleges, but Jats from Delhi do not. What could be a greater disparity than this?”