MYSURU: With Rural Development Minister KS Eshwarappa expressing doubts over holding the zilla and taluk panchayat polls any time before the next Assembly election after the Supreme Court mandated separate reservation for Backward Classes, the opposition Congress has said that the government should take up the case seriously and conduct the election to local bodies with the prevailing reservation for OBCs.
Congress leader HC Mahadevappa said the state should convince the court that there are already reports of the Backward Classes Commission and the caste census carried out by the government, on the reservation issue. He blamed the BJP government for the mess by not conducting the elections as announced by the State Election Committee. The BJP not committed to decentralisation of power and has postponed the election on the pretext of constituting a cabinet sub-committee to look into the reservation, he alleged.
Though the court has stated in its interim order that the election can be held, considering all constituencies as general, Mahadevappa feared that it will defeat the objective of reservation and most of the backward communities with lesser population will be unable to fight the polls in the general category.
“When the benefits of the Mandal Commission are yet to be experienced by these communities, how can they face polls without reservation that has been assured by the Constitution through the 73rd amendment?” he questioned.
Fearing that the delay in conducting the ZP, TP election with separate reservation for OBCs would go against their interests, Mahadevappa said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who hails from a backward community, should look into the issue and set right the injustice, or the OBCs in the country will not forgive him.