OBC reservation in UP: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Tuesday said that the state government will go ahead with reservation to Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in the local urban body elections and will hold a survey under guidelines set by the Supreme Court. CM Adityanath said that the local body polls will not be held before the survey and without reservation.
The chief minister's remarks came following the Allahabad High Court's judgment quashing the state government's December 5 notification for reservation of Other Backward Classes in the urban local body elections. Yogi Adityanath said the state government will challenge the decision of high court's Lucknow bench in the Supreme Court, if needed.
"UP govt will set up a commission in the perspective of urban body general elections & will provide reservation facility to the citizens of Other Backward Classes on the basis of triple test," Yogi Adityanath said in a tweet.
BJP govt has betrayed backward people: Samajwadi Party
Accusing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government of betraying the backward classes, the Samajwadi Party said there was a conspiracy by BJP to dismantle Baba Bhimrao Ambedkar's constitution.
"The BJP government deliberately made flawed provisions regarding reservation in order to kill the rights of backwards and Dalits," the Samajwadi Party said.
UP Urban Local Body Polls
The state government had earlier issued a provisional list of reserved seats for mayors of 17 municipal corporations, chairpersons of 200 municipal councils and 545 nagar panchayats for the three-tier urban local body elections and sought suggestions/objections within seven days.
According to the December 5 draft, four mayoral seats -– Aligarh, Mathura-Vrindavan, Meerut and Prayagraj -- were reserved for OBC candidates. Of these, the mayor's posts in Aligarh and Mathura-Vrindavan were reserved for OBC women.
Additionally, 54 chairpersons' seats in the 200 municipal councils were reserved for OBCs, including 18 for OBC women. For the chairpersons' seats in 545 nagar panchayats, 147 seats were reserved for OBC candidates, including 49 for OBC women.
