Suvendu Adhikari claims 90% Muslims in new OBC list, TMC rejects charge: ‘BJP resorting to divide and rule ahead of polls’

The senior BJP leader claimed that before 2010, there were 66 groups in the OBC list, of which 11 belonged to the Muslim community, making the percentage of “Muslim classes” in the list 20 per cent.

In 2025, under the Mamata Banerjee government, he claimed, 46 of the 51 groups added in the “first part” (OBC-A) were Muslims, which, he said, amounted to 90 per cent of the added groups.

In the “second part” (OBC-B), he claimed, 25 more groups were added, out of which 21 were Muslims, amounting to 84 per cent.

“Furthermore, the Government of West Bengal, through Notification No. 1106-BCW/MR-33/2025 dated June 3, 2025, has increased the reservation for OBCs in state services and posts to 17%, which includes 10% reservation for Category-A (More Backward) and 7% for Category-B (Backward) Classes. Previously, a 7% reservation was in place since 1997,” Adhikari said, adding “just look at the peak of appeasement politics”.

“The new list prepared by Mamata Banerjee Govt is simply the brazen Contempt of Court,” Adhikari concluded.

Reacting to Adhikari’s allegations, the TMC said, “We all know that ‘Divide and Rule’ is the official policy of BJP, and your only agenda for the 2026 elections is to pit Hindus against Muslims.”

The state government stated that the chief minister “made it crystal clear that backwardness, not religion, is the sole criterion for OBC status. “The new list was prepared with that principle in mind. So stop misleading the people with your lies,” the party said.

According to a government notification dated June 3, 2025, the total number of OBCs (Backward+ More Backward) is 140, comprising 80 Muslims and 60 non-Muslims, with Muslims making up 57.14% of the total.

This breaks down into two categories:

a. More Backward OBCs (Category A) with 49 members, including 36 Muslims and 13 non-Muslims, with Muslims accounting for 73.47%.

b. Backward OBCs (Category B) with 91 members, including 44 Muslims and 47 non-Muslims, with Muslims making up 48.35%.

On Tuesday, Mamata Banerjee, while laying out the report of the West Bengal Commission for Backward Classes in the state Assembly, said, “Some corner is trying to campaign that the state government is providing reservations on the basis of religion, which is baseless.”

“We made the new list of OBC-A and OBC-B on the basis of a scientific benchmark survey conducted by the Commission and included those communities who are backward. There is no question of making a list of OBC categories on the basis of religion,” she added.

Last year, the West Bengal government and other petitioners moved the Supreme Court after the Calcutta High Court, on May 22, 2024, cancelled all OBC certificates issued by the state since 2010, saying “religion indeed appears to have been the sole criterion” for granting OBC status to 77 communities.

The West Bengal government on March 18 this year informed the Supreme Court that a fresh exercise for the identification of Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in the state would be conducted, following which the Supreme Court agreed to adjourn the matter by three months and take it up in July.