BJP hopes to turn new OBC panel debate as Modi's Mandal moment

Govt keen to introduce Bill on new commission in ongoing Budget session

The Narendra Modi government is keen to ensure the passage of a Bill to grant constitutional status to its putative National Commission for Socially and Educationally Backward Classes in the current session of Parliament.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) views this as an effort to consolidate OBC support base, which majorly helped in the party's emphatic victory in Uttar Pradesh assembly polls.

Such a move will also help the government to politically outmanoeuvre the Opposition, which since the last two days has disrupted proceedings in the Rajya Sabha to protest the vacancies in the commissions for Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled