Other Backward Classes (OBC) communities have the potential to influence assembly elections in various states in 2023 and 2024, putting the BJP leadership in a tense spot as these communities move away from the party slowly. The situation in BJP-ruled states has prompted the Telangana unit of the party to consider how to stem the tide.
The shift can already be seen in Madhya Pradesh, where the OBCs have begun to abandon the saffron party. The OBC communities, which had supported the BJP since 2003, switched their allegiance to the Congress for the first time in 2018, resulting in the BJP failing to secure a simple majority.
It only gained power after engineering a defection in Congress two years later.
As the State’s assembly elections are scheduled for next year, the BJP leadership is once again concerned because they cannot afford to lose this time. The OBCs account for approximately 48% of MP voters, and over 100 of the State’s 230 assembly seats have a sizable share of OBC votes, which explains Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s desperate efforts to reclaim the OBCs.
The saffron party did give the leaders of OBC communities much greater representation than other parties in the electoral fray in the past and won with handsome margins to come to power, but ever since they shifted their loyalty to Congress in 2018, the party leadership has looked uneasy as their votes decide the formation of the government in the State.
Aside from the Congress and other political opponents, the BJP now faces the OBC Mahasabha, a Madhya Pradesh-based organization with a pan-India network. This group is thought to have played a significant role in shifting OBC votes away from the BJP during the 2018 assembly elections.
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The OBC Mahasabha is likely to play a decisive role in determining the next government in the 2023 elections.
Even in Gujarat, the OBC were dissatisfied with the ruling BJP because it failed to keep many promises made to them, including 10% reservation in local body elections. According to Poll analysts, a large number of OBCs will vote against the BJP in Gujarat’s ongoing assembly elections.
The situation in BJP-ruled states has prompted the BJP’s State unit in Telangana to take notice, with Rajya Sabha Member and national president of the BJP’s OBC Morcha K Laxman requesting that party leaders here launch an outreach program to attract OBC communities to the party.
The party state unit district, mandal, and constituency in-charges have already been directed to specifically target OBC communities while campaigning for the party in rural areas.
However, Telangana BC Commission chairman V Krishna Mohan Rao believes the BJP’s efforts to woo BCs will be futile because they have always supported Telangana Rashtra Samithi (now Bharat Rashtra Samithi) and will continue to do so in the future.
“BCs are happy with the TRS government. They are getting benefits of welfare and development schemes launched by the government. The BCs will always support K Chandrashekhar Rao,” he said.
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