Under attack from the RJD for implementing the reservation for Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) in general category, the Bihar BJP has called a meeting of its OBC wing on February 15 and 16 to tell them about the eight-point welfare measures implemented by the Centre. The meeting will be addressed by BJP president Amit Shah, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, former MP CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Jharkhand CM Raghubar Das. All top OBC leaders from state to block levels have been asked to attend the meeting so that they can spread awareness among the people about the government’s measures. According to sources, the BJP leadership decided to focus on its OBC-centric policies as RJD leader and Leader of Leader of Opposition in Assembly Tejashwi Yadav is trying hard to create a “backward-forward” binary in his bid to “consolidate his OBC votebase”. While Tejashwi has clarified that he is not against the poor among the upper castes, he is opposed to the Rs 8 lakh cap for EWS quota benefits. Senior OBC leader in BJP and party spokesperson Rajib Ranjan said, “We are not perturbed by what RJD is saying. Rather, they are threatened with BJP eroding their OBC and SC votebase. It is true that we want our OBC leaders to tell people at the village-level what we have done and are doing for them.” He said they had been discussing the “eight-point” programme for OBCs for sometime and it would not be fair to call it a “counter” to the EWS quota implementation. Ranjan said BJP’s “eight-point” programme includes getting constitutional status for National OBC Commission like the SC/ ST Commission. “Congress had created roadblocks in Rajya Sabha, but we were able to get it constitutional status,” he said. The BJP, he said, would also talk about constituting a commission for classification of castes under OBCs to rationalise reservation benefits to several EBCs. “Creamy layer identification cap has been raised from Rs 6 lakh to Rs 8 lakh,” said Ranjan, adding that a provision has been also made to extend reservation benefits to children of PSU employees. The BJP meet, he said, would also discuss how the process of OBC certification has been made easy as there is now no need for getting the certificate attested by a gazetted officer and one can self-attest it. “The Centre has started the venture capital scheme to encourage entrepreneurs from SC and OBC categories,” said Ranjan.
