LS polls 2014: Samajwadi Party promises panel to look into reservation for poor among upper castes

LUCKNOW: Samajwadi Party has promised to set up a commission to address the concerns of the upper castes, looking beyond its core supporters among Other Backward Classes and Muslims in its manifesto released ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, a product of Mandal and Mandir-Masjid politics, has long been making a pitch for reservation to Muslims and more rights to OBCs, but his party’s manifesto suggests an attempt to contain consolidation of upper caste votes in favour of BJP.

The promise to set up a sarvan ayog or upper caste commission to address the issues faced by the community, including reservation for the poor among them, comes more than a year after the party held a few ‘Brahmin sammelans’. Following a court ban on caste-based rallies, SP had constituted an ‘intellectual cell’ headed by minister Manoj Pandey, who has become the party’s new Brahmin mascot. Despite being a relatively junior MLA, Pandey was elevated to the cabinet rank and made minister of the heavyweight agriculture department in January.

As part of the same strategy, SP had made another MLA, Shiv Kant Ojha, also a Brahmin, a cabinet minister in January. Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav had earlier reinducted Raghuraj Pratap Singh, after he had resigned following accusations against him in the case involving murder of a deputy superintendent of police. It was interpreted as a measure to please the Thakur lobby.

The manifesto also promises reservation to Muslims in proportion to their population in educational institutes and government jobs. SP has promised to amend the Constitution to provide reservations to Muslims. It has also said it will ensure that 15% of all recruitments in police and PAC would be reserved for Muslims.

While the manifesto is silent on the Muzaffaranagar communal riots, which led to 62 deaths last year, the SP chief promised to free “all Muslims implicated in false terror cases”. In Azamgarh several Muslim youths have been arrested for their alleged involvement in terror cases and many of them have been claiming that they were innocent. The party chief is contesting the Lok Sabha polls from Azamgarh in addition to his traditional Mainpuri seat.