NEW DELHI: Days after the patch-up with Janata Dal (United), the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) claimed on Sunday to have become the first party in the country to implement ‘reservation’ in its organizational structure. This has been done at a time almost national and regional parties, especially in Bihar BJP included, are working on this equation to create a strong vote-bank on the basis of social engineering ahead of the 2024 LS and the 2025 assembly elections.
This reservation roster in the organisational elections of RJD will continue in effect further with an aim to make what RJD chief calls-‘samata-mulak samaj’.(egalitarian society).
Sharing details with this newspaper here, Chittaranjan Gagan- assistant national chief electoral officer of RJD, said that reservation has been implemented in the party for organisational structure with the purpose of giving special representation to the most backward and scheduled castes and tribes in the organizational structure.
“A provision has been made for special reservation for these classes in the constitution of RJD. According to the constitutional provisions of the party, 28 per cent of posts of party office bearers at the block and district levels including the party district presidents have been reserved for the most backward classes and 17 per cent for the scheduled castes and tribes now”, he claimed.
He further elaborated that the same roster of reservations has been implemented in the organizational election year 2022-2025, which was earlier implemented in the organizational election year 2019-2022.
The category, for which the posts of block president and district president were reserved in the last organizational year, would continue same for the same category in this organizational year also. “There has been no change in the previous roster”, he said.
At present, the RJD has around 50 organizational district units in Bihar. “Among these units, 17 district units, the party president post has been reserved for the most backward classes whereas in 7 district units, the president's post has been reserved for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
Sharing details, he said that Vaishali, Muzaffarpur, Madhubani, Darbhanga,Samastipur, Begusarai , Supaul, Saharsa, Purnia, Purnia , Munger, Bhagalpur , Banka, Biharsharif , Jehanabad and Patna Mahanagar(metropolis) have been reserved for the most backward, whereas Navgachia, Arwal, Kaimur, Nalanda, Araria, Siwan and Bagaha have been reserved for SC and ST.
“Along with this, provision has been made for co-opted members to ensure proper representation of special interests in the organization. Under which, out of the total co-opted members at various levels, except the initial unit, the participation of minimum of 25 per cent women, 25 per cent minorities, 30 per cent scheduled castes/tribes and the remaining 20 per cent of those sections which have not got representation will be ensured”, he added. In the primary unit, one member of the SC/ST will be represented as a ‘sahvarit’ (co-opted) member.