Uttar Pradesh Government Sets Up 5-Member Panel On OBC Reservation In Urban Body Polls

The Uttar Pradesh government on Wednesday set up a five-member commission over the issue of reservation to Other Backward Classes (OBC reservation) in urban local body elections. 

The commission will be headed by Justice (Retd) Ram Avtar Singh. The four other members are retired Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers Chaub Singh Verma and Mahendra Kumar and former legal advisors UP Santosh Kumar Viskarma and Brajesh Kumar Soni.

The setting up of the commission comes after the Allahabad High Court quashed the Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath-led UP government's earlier decision to reserve seats for OBCs in urbal local body polls. The High Court ruling brought Opposition's criticism on Adityanath's government and he assured that elections will only be held after OBC reservation — despite HC ordering "immediate" polls.

A notification on the panel's constitution, issued by the Urban Development department, said the commission's term would be for a six-month period from the day of taking charge. 

The grounds for the quashing of UP government's OBC reservation was the non-adherance to triple test formula laid down by the Supreme Court.

The 'triple test' formula requires setting up of a commission to hold a 'rigorous empirical inquiry' into the nature of 'backwardness' in the context of the local bodies, specifying the proportion of reservation based on the commission's recommendations, and not exceeding the overall 50 per cent quota limit.

Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya also said in a tweet earlier in the day that elections would only be held after reservation.

The court's verdict has triggered a slugfest between the BJP and the opposition Samajwadi Party (SP).

Maurya, the OBC face of the BJP in Uttar Pradesh, has faced particular ire of the SP with senior leader Ram Gopal Yadav attacking ministers from the OBC community in the Adityanath government.

Ram Gopal Yadav, the SP's national general secretary, had said in a tweet on Tuesday, "The decision of ending the OBC reservation in the urban body elections is unfortunate. It is a conspiracy of the Uttar Pradesh government, the facts were deliberately not presented before the court.

"...60 per cent of the population of Uttar Pradesh was denied reservation. The mouths of OBC ministers are locked. Maurya's condition is like that of a bonded labourer." 

Maurya, however, retaliated and said earlier in the day, "The SP and the Saifai family cannot tolerate a deputy chief minister from the backward class. The derogatory and indecent words being used by leaders of the Saifai family and their leaders, including Akhilesh Yadavji, towards me are well known.

"Wipe out of the SP and reservation to the backwards in the urban body elections are a foregone conclusion."

Saifai in Etawah district is the native village of SP founder Mulayam Singh Yadav.

SP chief Akhilesh Yadav also continued his attack on the state government and said in a tweet earlier during the day, "Trying to end reservation is the sinister conspiracy of the BJP's negative politics."

The party's Uttar Pradesh unit chief Naresh Uttam Patel also blamed the BJP-led dispensation for the high court setting aside the state government's December 5 notification on OBC reservation.

"The BJP government did not present the facts before the court and now it has been forced to say that a triple test will be done. Why this delay? The BJP is doing all this knowingly," he alleged.

Patel said the SP had continuously carried out programmes to "save the Constitution". 

The SP has been saying from the beginning that the BJP "is anti-reservation, anti-farmer and all sections are angry with it", he said.

Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati has also attacked the state government over the verdict.

Apna Dal (S) Working President Ashish Patel, a minister in the BJP-led government, said on Tuesday that elections without the OBC reservation were "not fair from any point of view".