UP: Urban local body polls only after reservation to OBCs, says CM Yogi

LUCKNOW: The Urban Local Body polls seem to be heading for a delay in the state as, contrary to Allahabad High Court’s Tuesday order, the Yogi Aditynath government is contemplating going for the elections only after fixing quota for OBCs through a triple test process in the civic bodies.

Reacting to the order passed by the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court allowing Urban Local Body elections in the state without OBC reservation in civic bodies, the Uttar Pradesh government said that it would not go for the polls without fixing quota for OBCs.

In a press statement issued on Tuesday, UP CM Yogi Adityanath said that the state would form a commission to ensure reservation to OBCs on the basis of a "triple test" process and that the Local Body elections would be conducted only after providing reservations to OBCs.

CM Yogi said the authorities were going through the High Court order in detail and the state government would consider all the legal aspects associated with it. The state government would move the Supreme Court, if necessary, said the UP CM.

Earlier in the day, in an order, a Division Bench of Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Saurabh Lavania said until the “triple test/conditions” mandated by the Supreme Court was completed in all respects by the state government, no reservation for the Backward Class of citizens should be provided.

UP Deputy CM Keshav Maurya said that the decision over Urban Local Body polls would be taken only after consulting the legal experts in connection with the High Court order. “However, there would be no compromise over the rights of OBCs,” said Maurya.

State Urban Development Minister AK Sharma also made similar claims and reiterated the state government’s stand of moving to the Supreme Court if needed.

Minister Ashish Patel, the executive president of BJP ally Apna Dal (S), claimed that it would not be proper to hold civic polls without an OBC quota. “We (Apna Dal -S) are also studying the HC order and will not shy away from moving apex court if necessary to protect the rights of OBCs,” said Patel.

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In UP, BJP has been banking upon the support of non-Yadav OBCs to a large extent in the previous elections. In the 2022 assembly polls, around 64 per cent non-Yadav OBCs voted for the ruling party.

Following the High Court order, Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav called the state government "anti-OBC reservation" and accused it of shedding ‘crocodile tears’ on the issue.

Taking to Twitter, the SP chief said, "Today the BJP has snatched the right of reservation from OBCs, tomorrow it will also strip the SC/ ST of their right ensured to them by Baba Saheb Ambedkar.”

SP national general secretary and party’s Rajya Sabha member Prof Ram Gopal Yadav took to Twitter to raise questions over the Yogi government’s intent to hold civic polls in the state.

Ram Gopal Yadav accused the state government of not contesting the case properly in court. He called the court order allowing the civic polls without OBC reservation as ‘unfortunate’.

Alleging it a plot of the Yogi government, the SP leader accused it of not presenting the facts in the court deliberately. "This is how the UP government has stripped 60 per cent population of the state of reservation," said the SP leader in his Twitter post.

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