The combine of the Congress party and Ajit Singh’s Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) may be eyeing quotas for the Jat community as a way to help unseat Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party in the coming polls in Uttar Pradesh.
Mayawati, as chief minister of the state, has already written to the Prime Minister, pressing the demand herself. Ajit Singh, now the new Union minister for civil aviation, has renewed his earlier demand on the issue. Accompanied by senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh, he met home minister
P Chidambaram today to ask that Jats be included in the Central list of backward classes.
Ajit Singh, himself from the community, is believed to have got assurances. If it happens, it would boost his standing as a Jat leader. While Jats are only five to six per cent of the total population of the the state, they are 17 per cent of the total in western UP, Ajit Singh’s political base, and likely to affect elections in 55 assembly constituencies.
Ajit Singh told journalists on Saturday, “Jats are classified as a backward caste in many states like Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan and Maharashtra. So, why can't they be classified a backward class at the Centre? The demand has been there for a long time and it is a just one. How come Jats are backward in Noida but not in Delhi?”
The demand was wholeheartedly backed by the Congress’ Digvijay Singh. “The RLD and the Congress party have both supported the demand to include Jats in the central list,” he said.
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Ajit Singh had also raised the issue at a Cabinet meeting on Thursday, when the body had approved reservation for backward Muslims. He demanded Jats be included in the central OBC list and is believed to have got an assurance. Digvijay Singh seemed to also indicate that Chidambaram had given an assurance at their meeting. He agreed the earlier Backward Classes Commission had rejected this demand, but said this was ‘recommendatory’.
With a 4.5 per cent quota for backward Muslims cleared by the Cabinet this week, Jats may be next in line for political sops. Both communities are important in western UP, which has 100 of the state assembly’s 403 seats.
In a related development, with the RLD alliance sealed, the Congress on Saturday released its third list of candidates for the assembly, with several seats in west UP also being declared.