Congress has always been anti-backward classes: Amit Shah

New Delhi: With nearly three months to go for the Haryana Assembly polls, the BJP is going all out to stir the caste cauldron in the state. On Tuesday, Union home minister Amit Shah zeroed in on the OBC vote bank and addressed a “Backward Classes Sammelan” at Mahendragarh, Haryana. The home minister branded the Opposition as “anti-working class”.

With an OBC Chief Minister, Naib Singh Saini, and a Brahmin state unit chief, Mohan Lal Badoli, the BJP is trying to consolidate these two influential vote banks before the polls. This is being done to woo non-Jat voters in the state.

Also, to influence Baniyas and the trader class in the agrarian state, Mr Shah also referred himself as a “Son of Baniya”.

The BJP suffered a major setback in the Lok Sabha polls after it lost five of the state’s 10 seats to the Congress.

Launching a scathing attack on the Congress, Shah accused the party of being anti-Backward Classes and said if it came to power in Haryana, it will snatch reservations from them and give it to Muslims.

Referring to the Kaka Kalelkar Commission formed in the 1950s to provide reservation for OBCs, Shah said that the Congress did not implement its recommendation.

“In 1980, (then Prime Minister) Indira Gandhi put the Mandal Commission in cold storage. In 1990, when it was accepted, Rajiv Gandhi gave a two-and-a-half-hour speech and opposed OBC reservations,” the Union minister said, adding: “In Karnataka, the Congress snatched reservation for backward classes and gave it to Muslims. The same will happen here if they come (to power) here."

“I want to assure you that we (BJP) will not allow Muslim reservations in Haryana. We will protect the rights of the backward classes,” he said.

When Narendra Modi became Prime Minister in 2014, he had said that his government was of Dalits, the poor and Backward Classes, said Shah, adding that the BJP was the only party which has given the country a PM from a Backward Class.

Shah also said that the Saini-led Haryana government had recently taken some important decisions for backward classes, including increasing the annual income limit for the creamy layer of Other Backward Classes (OBCs) from Rs 6 lakh to Rs 8 lakh. Further, the government also provided eight per cent reservation to Group A and five per cent to Group B in panchayats and municipal corporations.

Saini, Union ministers Rao Inderjit Singh, Krishan Pal Gurjar and Dharmendra Pradhan, and many Haryana ministers were also present on the occasion.

Targeting senior Congress leader and former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda over the Congress’ “Haryana Maange Hisab” campaign, Shah said: “Hooda Sahab, you have to give an account of 10 years of misgovernance and depriving Haryana of development.”

“I am the son of a Baniya, I have come with an account for every single penny. What account do you want? We will give you an account of things and the people of Haryana will seek an account from the Congress,” he said.

He asserted that the BJP would form the government in Haryana with a full majority and urged backward classes to vote for the party in the Assembly polls.

This was Shah’s second visit to Haryana in less than a month. On June 29, he addressed BJP leaders and workers during a meeting of the party’s extended state executive in Panchkula.

Jats, who constitute around 24 per cent of Haryana’s electorate, traditionally influence the state’s political outcomes. Previously inclined towards the BJP, the community has shown signs of shifting allegiance, largely due to dissatisfaction with the farm laws and the Agniveer scheme.

The BJP is now trying to consolidate support among non-Jat communities, such as Brahmins, Yadavs, Baniyas and Punjabis. This strategy indicates the party’s recognition of the need to broaden its appeal amid waning support from the Jats.