UP: Akhilesh Demands Special Assembly Session to Discuss OBC Quota in Urban Local Polls

Lucknow: Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on Thursday asked the Uttar Pradesh government to convene a special session of the Assembly to discuss the issue of reservation for OBCs in urban local body polls.

Dubbing the ruling BJP "anti-OBC" and "anti-Dalit", he said, "If the government's conscience is clear, it should convene a special session of the Assembly so that they can put forth their points and give us a chance to put our views on OBC reservation in urban local body polls."

The Uttar Pradesh government on Wednesday appointed a five-member commission on reservation to the Other Backward Classes (OBC) in urban local body elections, a day after the Allahabad High Court quashed its draft poll notification and ordered it to hold the polls without reservation for OBCs.

Yadav said the SP will stand solidly with the backward classes as "we have no faith in the government" and added the OBC wing of his party was making preparations to fight the battle in the Supreme Court, if required.

"It is not just discrimination on the issue of reservation, but the government is also trying to run away from election as they know that if they go before the people they will be defeated," he said, citing the recent bypoll results.

"The results of the elections held recently have shown that backwards, dalit, minority people together voted against the wrong policies of the BJP," he said.

The government has pushed things to the brink forcing the backwards and dalits to prepare together for a revolution for reservation, the SP chief said.

Alleging that the BJP government is against the backwards, he said the State Backward Classes Commission was constituted in 1994 but it was disbanded later.

"It (commission) could have extended some support to the backwards but the government has brought it to an end," Yadav said.

Accusing the BJP government of meting out step-motherly treatment to backwards and dalits, he alleged that there is a conspiracy to snatch away their rights.

Warning that "today the reservation of backwards has been snatched, tomorrow the quota of the Dalits will also be snatched", Yadav said the backwards have not only been betrayed but there is also a conspiracy to snatch away theirs rights, provisions for which were made by the architect of the Constitution, B R Ambedkar.

"This is a conspiracy to make the coming generations of OBCs servants. It is also aimed at evicting these castes from power and BJP has been making preparations for it all through," Yadav said.

"The BJP wants votes of the backwards but does not want to make them partner in power. Through publicity and allurements, they want to take their votes but when it is time to make them partners in power they do not do so. The governments both in the state and at the Centre have been formed because of votes of the backwards, but there is no place for them in governments," he stressed.

Taking a jibe at the BJP's backward class leaders without taking any name, the SP chief said it seems that after joining BJP and coming to power, the souls of these leaders die.

At the press conference, traders from Ayodhya whose land have been acquired for development purposes narrated their woes.

The SP president demanded that the traders be given adequate compensation and government land for their livelihood. He said that he would visit Ayodhya on January 27 next year.