Vote Bank Politics With BCs, OBCs

Backward classes (BCs) and other backward classes (OBCs) have always been reliable vote banks to the political parties. As elections near, political parties shower immense love towards the BCs and OBCs. Leaders who do not know about the count of BCs also keep taking the names of every caste in particular, ahead of the polls.

In 1983, when late NTR was voted to power, he gave importance to their political empowerment. Later, the policy was conveniently forgotten.

Now, as the Assembly elections are drawing near, political parties in Andhra Pradesh have shifted focus towards the BCs. Recently, Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy held a public meeting BC Garjana. Opposition leader and TDP supremo N. Chandrababu Naidu, during his tour in Nellore district, held a meeting with the BCs.

In Andhra Pradesh, the BC population is more than 50 per cent but their reservation, according to the latest figures, is below 25 per cent. With various communities vying for reservation but the quota limit being capped at 50 per cent as per the Constitution, the quantum of BC quota has reduced. Despite having the strength in terms of numbers, the BCs are not able to fight for their quota.

The YCP had held BC Garjana in 2017 too. By organizing a similar meeting recently, YCP president and Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy listed out the benefits their government had done to the communities. The party boasted of giving ministerial berths to BCs and claimed that Assembly Speaker Tammineni Sitaram is a BC leader. Of the total eight Rajya Sabha MPs, four belong to BCs. In the local body elections, 67% of the posts have been given to BCs. Majority of the members in the Assembly hail from the backward communities. All the seven corporations in the state have BC leaders as chairmen, the YCP leaders said.

Further, the YCP claimed that it was their party which constituted a permanent BC Commission.

However, all these could be termed as eyewash efforts. None of the successive governments did any good to the BCs, except for giving a couple of posts to people of the communities. Leaders of almost all the political parties agree that neither the social nor economic conditions of the BCs had improved, despite the quota.

Chandrababu Naidu promised to sign on files pertaining to welfare of BCs, if voted to power in the 2024 elections. BCs would soon give a return gift to Jagan Mohan Reddy, he said and alleged that the CM was insulting the caste professions of BCs. Naidu called upon the dhobis to wash the CM just as they did with the clothes. “The TDP had distributed latest washing equipment to the washermen community during its rule,” he reminded and demanded that the YCP government release a White Paper on the steps taken for the welfare of BCs.

Meanwhile, the BCs said that occupying the highest political position in the state remained a mirage for them. The Chief Minister post goes either to a Chowdary or a Reddy. In a rare case, it can go to a person from the upper caste. When will a BC leader become a Chief Minister, they questioned.