Amid Rahul's OBC, Congress leaders ask why no OBC nomination in Bihar legislative council?

New Delhi: With Rahul Gandhi maintaining a tempo on the caste census and increased reservation for Other Backward Classes (OBCs), several Congress leaders have urged the leadership to nominate a member of the community in the upcoming legislative council elections in Bihar.

Elections will be held on 11 seats as the deadline for filing nominations is March 11, with the last date for withdrawal being March 14. The voting is scheduled to take place on March 21.

Rahul Gandhi is convinced that the party's revival hinges on wooing the OBCs since the upper castes are unwilling to return to its fold.

Congress leaders refer to Rahul Gandhi's often repeated promise that the grand old party will increase the representation of OBCs in bureaucracy and elsewhere to make a point.

They have also claimed that since 2000 not a single OBC leader has been nominated by the party to the Bihar legislative council.

In the past 11 elections, these leaders pointed out that the Congress had fielded its candidates on nine occasions. While it nominated Brahmins four times, Scheduled Castes thrice, Rajputs and Muslims once each.

It was late Dr Nagendra Jha (Brahmin) in 2000, Dr Jyoti (Dalit) was nominated in 2002, Chandan Bagchi (Brahmin) in 2002 and 2006, Dr Jyoti again in 2008, Ashok Choudhary (Dalit) in 2014, Late Tanveer Akhtar (Muslim) in 2016, Prem Chandra Mishra (Brahmin) in 2018 and Dr Samir Kumar Singh (Rajput) in 2020.

They said the OBC leaders and voters, after the publication of the caste census in Bihar, have become more conscious and ambitious for their rights and sharing in the power system.

The demand for nominating an OBC leader this time is in line with the broad thinking in the Congress that the focus should be on wooing these communities, especially in the Hindi heartland, to ensure the party's return to power at the national level.