NCP's Dhananjay Munde seeks restoration of OBC reservation before Maha civic body polls

In a recent development, NCP leader Dhananjay Munde has demanded that elections to local municipal bodies, which are scheduled for next month, not be held without providing reservations to OBCs. He informed that the state Backward Classes Commission’s report on quota for the community is ready. 

According to the announcement made by the State Election Commission (SEC) on Friday, elections for 92 Nagar Parishads and four Nagar Panchayats in Maharashtra will be held on August 18. 

Elections will be held for local urban bodies in Pune, Sangli, Solapur, Kolhapur, Nashik, Dhule, Nandurbar, Jalgaon, Ahmednagar, Aurangabad, Jalna, Beed, Osmanabad, Latur, Amravati and Buldhana districts. 

In a tweet posted on Friday night, the former minister for social justice, Dhananjay Munde, said, “The Backward Classes Commission set up by the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government on OBC quota has prepared its report. It is our firm stand that without announcing the OBC reservation, election to the civic bodies should not be held in the state.” 

Notably, next month’s elections to the municipal bodies are likely to be held without Other Backward Classes (OBC) reservation while a related case is pending before the Supreme Court, sources in the SEC said.

No elections should take place until reservation is restored: Nana Patole 

Until the Supreme Court restored the OBC quota in March, last year, the BJP had previously resisted holding local body elections. However, the party now governs the state alongside the Shiv Sena faction headed by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, who took office following the collapse of the MVA government led by Uddhav Thackeray. 

State Congress chief Nana Patole alleged that former Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and the Union government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi were responsible for OBCs losing their political quota in local body elections. He said, “There should be no elections until the reservation is restored.”

Due to a lack of empirical evidence, the SC has rejected restoring the OBC reservation. The OBC reservation in local bodies in Maharashtra cannot exceed 50% of the total seats reserved for the SCs, STs, and OBCs taken together, the Supreme Court's three-judge panel had earlier said. It made reference to the three criteria listed in the 2010 constitution bench ruling.

In order to avoid overbreadth, the requirements stipulated that a certain percentage of seats must be allocated locally, taking into account the commission's recommendations. In any case, the percentage of seats reserved for SCs, STs, and OBCs collectively must not exceed 50% of total seats.