BJP gives a guarded welcome to Nitish’s private sector quota idea

NEW DELHI: Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar’s proposal for reservations in the private sector has got a guarded response from ally BJP which despite publicly welcoming the idea has certain apprehensions about the political fallout of such a move as it may antagonise its traditional Brahmin-Bania vote base.

BJP sources said Nitish virtually kept them in the dark till the end about his intention of bringing in the cabinet the issue of quota in private sector.

The Bihar cabinet has floated the proposal that there should be reservation for OBCs, SC and ST in jobs in projects outsourced and funded by the government. Deputy chief minister Sushil Modi, LJP chief and union minister Ram Vilas Paswan, BJP Dalit MP Uditraj, OBC leader Hukum Deo Narayan Yadav and RLSP leader and junior HRD Minister Upendra Kushwaha have welcomed this move.


BJP leaders from Bihar said this is more a political move by the CM as there is hardly any industry or private sector presence in the state.

“Nitish is carving a new vote base or securing his position as he fears BJP will eat into his OBC, MBCs support in future,” a senior BJP leader told ET.

Though during the anti-Mandal agitation BJP had leaned towards the protestors —LK Advani had visited Rajiv Goswami who tried self-immolation against OBC quota—it has aggressively wooed the backward castes under Narendra Modi’s leadership. However, providing job quotas in the private sector—which arguably attracted the upper castes in big numbers post-1991 economic liberalisation and also due to an increase in quantum of reservation in government jobs post Mandal—is something that BJP has been silent on.

BJP leaders maintain that with the government jobs shrinking, the private sector has been an employment generator for its traditional vote base of Brahmins, banias and the other upper castes. Providing reservation here may upset the apple cart.

Some BJP leaders cite the demand for reservation by Marathas, Patels and Lingayats- all three have a vibrant public sector- as reason enough for supporting the issue of quotas in private sector to ease the pressure.

JDU leader K C Tyagi maintains that ally BJP will benefit from supporting the cause espoused by Nitish Kumar.

“The children of farmers are not getting government jobs. Supporting it will increase the NDA’s social base. It is better for BJP to have Nitish Kumar leading such a movement than having the likes of Alpesh Thakor (OBC leader in Gujarat who has joined Congress) promoting it,” he told ET.

Dalit Chamber of Commerce and Industry head Milind Kamble is not impressed with Nitish Kumar’s proposal.

“This is old wine in a new bottle. In 2005, an Affirmative Action Committee was formed under J J Irani to look into the issue of reservation in private sector. Indian industry (captains) had said in 2006 that there is no need for any legislation and we take responsibility of implementing it. Now after ten years it should be reviewed if this promise has been kept and to what extent and then a call taken on whether we need a legislation for quota in private sector,” he said.