Badnawar (Madhya Pradesh): The process of reservations forwards, panchayats and municipal councils was peacefully held on Wednesday here in Badnawar Tehsil of Dhar district.
The reservation process that started in the morning continued till the evening as reservation for 89 panchayats that fall under Badnawar Janpad area was done. According to information, out of 89 panchayats, 44 panchayats were reserved for candidates belonging to the open category, 35 for scheduled tribes and the remaining 10 for scheduled caste.
With no panchayat reserved for the candidates belonging to the other backward class, many political leaders belonging to the OBC raised a question about the reservation process and accused that the OBC class was betrayed by discrimination in the process.
Many political leaders claimed that many panchayats were unreserved previously despite having 60 to 70 per cent tribal population and have remained in the unreserved category this time too.
There was resentment among many claimants belonging to the reserved or open categories and they are mulling challenging the entire process in the court as well.
Quoting an example of some gram panchayats like Kod, Bidwell, Kanwan, Gajnod where there is a majority of general and OBC classes, but this time there has been reservation for SC and ST classes.
The reservation process was completed in the presence of SDM Virendra Katare and Janpad Panchayat CEO Teeja Panwar. Senior leaders of both the BJP and Congress and a large number of leaders from rural areas who were present during the process were left disappointed.
In his reaction, former MLA and senior BJP leader Khemraj Patidar said that there is a big discrepancy in the Panchayat Act that when the reservation of Panchs of Panchayat, Janpad and District Panchayat is based on caste population, then the reservation of Sarpanch post in Panchayats is also similar. His statement was also supported by Block Congress president Niranjan Pal Singh Panwar.
Whereas Congress youth leader and district spokesperson Abhishek Singh Rathore alleged that the BJP government of the state is anti-OBC and panchayat elections are being conducted by deceiving this society. The government wants to cripple the OBC class politically and the government, which talks about 30 per cent reservation, has not given reservation to the OBC class even in one of the 89 panchayats of the Badnawar district area. Similarly, the OBC category has not got the benefit of reservation in any of the 25 seats in the district area. OBC community will work to defeat the BJP in these elections, he said.
