Decode Politics: As it surprises with CM choices, why BJP is not worried about ‘upper-caste’ backlash

Chhattisgarh has its first tribal Chief Minister in Vishnu Deo Sai, while the Deputy CMs are likely to be Arun Sao, who is from the OBC Teli community, and Vijay Sharma, a Brahmin leader who defeated Congress’s Mohammad Akbar from Kawardha. In Madhya Pradesh, the CM-designate Mohan Yadav comes from the OBC Yadav caste that steered Lohiaite and anti-Hindutva politics in UP and Bihar. Here, too, one deputy CM, Jagdish Devda, is a Dalit and the other, Rajendra Shukla, is a Brahmin. It is only in Rajasthan that the party has chosen an “upper caste” Chief Minister in Bhajan Lal Sharma. One deputy CM, Premchand Bairwa, is Dalit while the other, Diya Kumari, is from the Rajput community.

Why BJP feels it has a free hand

In both Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, two of the top three executive positions in government are for either OBCs, SCs, or STs. The BJP, perhaps for the first time, does not have to think too deeply about alienating the “upper castes”. Though “upper castes” form a major part of the BJP’s support base, the perception that a caste count will drastically bring down government seats open to the general category is likely to have made these groups open to the BJP giving more representation to the marginalised group at top political levels.

“There is political representation and there is representation in government jobs. The upper castes will not bother about the former as long as the latter, which affects their families directly, does not get tweaked to their absolute disadvantage via a caste census, followed by demands for proportional representation. So, they are further alienated from the Congress and looking at the BJP as the only party that is not in favour of a massive tweak in the reservation regime,” said a BJP leader.

He added, “Since the upper castes are now in tighter embrace of the BJP, it can puncture the Opposition’s caste pitch completely by deepening visible political representation for OBCs, SCs, and STs. The latter groups will like this and the upper castes won’t mind it. The Congress is a loser from both sides in such a bargain.”

For Congress, the past is a burden

With a hint of sarcasm, a Congress leader said, “Who said Rahul ji’s OBC pitch isn’t working? It is working for OBCs within the BJP.”

The BJP has also attempted to label the Congress’s recent caste census pitch as mere posturing. In Parliament, Union Home Minister Amit Shah has accused past Congress governments of stalling the Kaka Kalelkar Commission of the 1950s — the first OBC Commission — and putting the Mandal Commission report on the back burner for about a decade till V P Singh as PM said he would implement its recommendations. He also said that former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi opposed the implementation of the Mandal Commission’s proposals on the floor of the House.