Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on 22 December took a massive decision ahead of assembly elections after the UP cabinet on 22 December cleared the proposal of including 17 OBCs into the lists of Scheduled castes.
The Uttar Pradesh government has sent the proposal to the central government for clearance. The sub-castes proposed to be included in the SC list primarily consists of the most backward castes (MBCs) within the OBCs.
The state government had sent this proposal back in 2013 too. The government has rejected the proposal back then. Akhilesh Yadav had sent its recommendation for inclusion of 17 OBCs in Scheduled Caste (SC) list, to the Central government.
The Bharatiya Janata Party lashed the UP government’s decision saying that the move was completely politically motivated and was being done keeping in view of the upcoming election.
Even in 2005 the Akhilesh Yadav goverment had made amendments in the UP Public Services Act, 1994, in order to include 17 OBC’s in the SC list. However, the High Court scrapped the decision since the decision to include any castes in the scheduled caste lists was only the Central government decision.
Last year, Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav had asserted that he would speak to the Prime Minister and ask him to take cognisance to the demands of these 17 OBCs. He went said that the government will have to face the brunt if they reject the proposal.
