After HC stay, Mayawati says UP govt move to include 17 OBCs in SC list 'selfish, political'

LUCKNOW: The Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday drew flak from the BSP and BJP's former ally SBSP after the Allahabad High Court a day ago stayed the notification to include 17 OBC groups in the state's scheduled castes list.

Terming the state government's move as "most unfortunate", BSP president Mayawati said such decisions by the government are "guided by total selfish and political motives".

Accusing the Adityanath government of doing injustice to OBCs, Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party chief Om Prakash Rajbhar said if the UP government was serious about including the 17 other backward classes in the SC list, it should have sent a proposal to the Centre and got the Parliament's approval.


In her tweet in Hindi, Mayawati said, "The news of the high court putting a stay on the forcible declaration of 17 OBCs as scheduled castes in Uttar Pradesh is naturally in limelight today."

"Such decisions guided by total selfish political motives do not affect any party/government but the entire society gets affected by it. Most unfortunate," she added.

The Uttar Pradesh government had issued a notification in June to include 17 OBC communities in the SC list.

The 17 OBC communities included in the state's SC list were Kahar, Kashyap, Kewat, Nishad, Bind, Bhar, Prajapati, Rajbhar, Batham, Gaur, Tura, Majhi, Mallah, Kumhar, Dheemar and Machua sub-castes.

Commenting on the development, Rajbhar termed the BJP as a "jumla party", only concerned about votes.

"They have done injustice with these 17 castes. Had they wanted to do justice with them, they would have sent a proposal to the Centre and could have got it passed by Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha," he said.

"They will now tell these 17 castes that the BJP wanted them to get benefits like those given to scheduled castes but the court has put a stay on it," Rajbhar said.

"I would tell the chief minister that if he really wants these 17 castes to be included in the Scheduled Castes list, he should still send a proposal to the Centre," he said.

Rajbhar, who was a minister for Backward Class Welfare and Divyangjan Empowerment, was sacked by the chief minster three months ago for issuing embarrassing statements against the BJP government.