News Brief
Madhya Pradesh CM Mohan Yadav (File Photo)
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav on Saturday (13 September) reaffirmed his government’s commitment to providing 27 per cent reservation for Other Backward Classes (OBCs), reported The New Indian Express.
A delegation of the OBC Mahasabha met Yadav at his residence and submitted a memorandum outlining the community’s demands.
According to a government release, Yadav assured them that the state would protect OBC rights.
"The Centre has approved caste-based census to prepare basic data of all communities. The issue of OBC reservation is pending before the Supreme Court, with regular hearings scheduled to begin from 23 September. The government will abide by the court's decision," the release quoted him as saying.
OBC Mahasabha’s national core committee member Lokendra Gurjar, one of the petitioners in the quota case, confirmed Yadav’s assurance.
"Currently OBCs are getting 14 per cent reservation in MP. We want this figure to go up to 27 per cent," Gurjar was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.
Gurjar is one of the petitioners in the case related to OBC quota being heard by the Supreme Court
Earlier in the day, Advocate General Prashant Singh chaired a meeting that resolved to present the state’s case effectively in the Supreme Court with support from the Solicitor General, Attorney General, and lawyers recommended by the OBC community.
Yadav had also held discussions with stakeholders on 28 August, noting that all political parties supported 27 per cent OBC reservation.
The Congress government under Kamal Nath, in power from December 2018 to March 2020, had increased OBC quota from 14 to 27 per cent through an ordinance, but the move ran into legal challenges.
OBCs constitute 51.8 per cent of Madhya Pradesh’s population, and since 2003, every BJP chief minister—including Uma Bharti, Babulal Gaur, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, and Mohan Yadav—has come from the OBC community.