Frame political reservation for OBCs based on Socio-Educational and Economic Survey in K’taka: Siddaramaiah

PTI, May 11, 2022, 11:51 AM IST

Bengaluru: Leader of Opposition in Karnataka Assembly, Siddaramaiah on Wednesday urged Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai to formulate political reservation for OBCs on the basis of the Socio-Educational and Economic Survey done in the state and present the report to the Supreme Court with a request to conduct local body elections based on it.

Noting that this is the only solution for the state to resolve the issue after the Apex Court Judgement, the former CM said to prevent injustice to the backward classes, the government should discuss with the legal experts, take the opposition parties into confidence, and have to be ready for the legal fight.

Siddaramaiah’s statement comes in the backdrop of the Top Court on Tuesday directing the Madhya Pradesh State Election Commission (SEC) to issue a poll program for local bodies within two weeks.

The apex court said the ongoing activity of delimitation or formation of the ward cannot be a legitimate ground to be set forth by any authority to not discharge its Constitutional obligation in notifying the election program at the opportune time and to ensure that the elected body is installed before the expiry of the five-year term of the outgoing body.

The bench has said its order and directions are not limited to Madhya Pradesh but to all the states/Union Territories and the respective election commission to abide by the same without fail, to uphold the constitutional mandate.

Faced with the possibility of local body polls that were due to be announced after this Supreme Court order, Bommai had said he has instructed the Law Department and the Advocate General to study the full text of the order, as it would be applicable to the state too.

Pointing out that the Supreme Court in 2010 had ordered that the reservation policy for employment and education cannot be applied for political representation and the policy for political representation should be framed after collecting exhaustive data through the backward classes commission and applying the triple test formula, Siddaramaiah said the SC has reiterated the same thing.

SC has reiterated that if the revised political reservation policy is not available now, declare all the constituencies as general except that of SC & ST reserved seats, he said, ”It is unfortunate that BJP is delaying to seek legal remedy even though the Supreme Court has said this judgment is applicable to all the States.”

Noting that the Supreme Court, in its previous order, has allowed the States to give the already available data to the new commission, the Congress Legislature Party said, the commission can analyze this data and can give interim recommendations.

”BJP is wasting time even though the Supreme Court has given some solution to the issue. I had raised this and warned several months ago,” he said. Recalling that during his tenure as CM, the government had conducted an exhaustive door-to-door Social, Educational, and Economic Survey through Backward Classes Commission, Siddaramaiah said, this has accurate data on the political representation of people of all castes and there is no need for a separate survey like other States.

”The Supreme Court has always asked for exhaustive and reliable data in cases related to reservation. Our door-to-door Social, Educational and Economic Survey is the answer for the same,” he added.