MP govt committed to 27 pc OBC quota, CM Yadav tells delegation

Bhopal, Sep 13 (PTI) Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav on Saturday said his government was committed to 27 per cent reservation for Other Backward Classes in the state.

A delegation of the OBC Mahasabha met Yadav at his residence in the evening and submitted a memorandum listing various demands of the community, a government release said.

The CM assured the delegation the rights of the OBC community would be protected, it said.

"The Centre has approved caste-based census to prepare basic data of all communities. The issue of OBC reservation is pending before the Supreme Court, with regular hearings scheduled to begin from September 23. The government will abide by the court's decision," the release quoted him as saying.

CM Yadav has assured that his government was committed to 27 per cent reservation, OBC Mahasabha's national core committee member Lokendra Gurjar told PTI.

"Currently OBCs are getting 14 per cent reservation in MP. We want this figure to go up to 27 per cent," he said.

Gurjar, who is one of the petitioners in the case related to OBC quota being heard by the Supreme Court, was part of a delegation of members of his outfit, other petitioners, lawyers etc that met the CM during the day.

Earlier in the day, a meeting chaired by Advocate General Prashant Singh here resolved that the state government, through Solicitor General and Attorney General along with lawyers proposed by the OBC community, would present the case effectively in the apex court.

Yadav had met stakeholders in the issue on August 28 as well and said all political parties are unanimous about 27 per cent OBC quota.

The Congress government in MP under Kamal Nath, which was in power from December 2018 to March 2020, had raised the quota for OBCs from 14 to 27 per cent through an ordinance. However, it got caught up in legal tangles.

OBCs comprise around 51.8 per cent of Madhya Pradesh's population. Since 2003, all BJP chief ministers, namely Uma Bharti, Babulal Gaur, Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Mohan Yadav, have been from the OBC segment. PTI LAL BNM