Odisha: BJD to field 27% OBC candidates in elections

BHUBANESWAR: The Naveen Patnaik-led BJD on Friday decided to field at least 27% candidates from other backward classes (OBC)s in all future elections — starting with the panchayat polls, scheduled early next year.
BJD’s two backward class leaders — food supplies and consumer welfare minister Ranendra Pratap Swain and higher education and agriculture minister Arun Sahoo — announced the party decision in a joint news conference.
Explaining the rationale behind the move, the leaders said Naveen decided to field 27% OBC candidates because there is court restriction on quota for them in panchayat and urban local bodies. The ministers also dared other parties to take similar steps for socially and educationally backward classes. “They should also nominate 33% women in assembly and Lok Sabha elections,” Swain said. The BJD had fielded 33% women candidates in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
Odisha had reserved 27% posts for OBCs in urban local body polls in 2013 and the three-tier panchayat elections in 2017, which had taken the overall quota in polls to around 65%. Acting on a PIL, the Orissa high court had in April 2018 directed the state not to cross the 50% quota limit. BJD MPs had recently met Union home minister Amit Shah and demanded a central law for removal of the 50% cap.
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