Maharashtra government to issue ordiance for OBC quota in local body bypolls

The Maharashtra government will bring an ordinance to grant OBC quota in upcoming by-elections to a set of local governing bodies without crossing the Supreme Court-mandated 50 percent cap on the reservation, said state minister Chhagan Bhujbal on Wednesday. A decision to this effect was taken at a cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray here. Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Bhujbal said, The cabinet decided to issue an ordinance which will offer electoral reservation to OBCs in the upcoming by-elections. The reservation will be based on (OBC) population in the constituency where bypolls are scheduled. Maharashtra has taken cues from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana to provide political quota through the ordinance route, said the Minister for Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Protection. It is true that in some districts, the reservation will come down by 10 to 12 percent, but the ordinance will protect the electoral quota for almost 90 percent overall. 

The state has decided to take the ordinance route on lines of similar decisions previously taken by Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, said Bhujbal. OBCs used to get 27 per cent reservation in electoral wards of municipal bodies and zilla parishads (district councils).Asked how the state will tackle the 50 per cent limit on cumulative reservation, the minister said, We will not cross the 50 per cent cap. Hence, we are giving up a portion of reservation in some areas to keep our electoral quota under 50 per cent cap.On Monday, the State Election Commission (SEC) announced that by-elections to six zilla parishads (ZPs) and panchayat samitis under them for seats that have fallen vacant after the Supreme Court's OBC quota ruling will be held on October 5.By-elections will be held for 85 wards in zilla parishads and 144 seats in panchayat samitis falling under their (ZP's) jurisdiction, the SEC had said. The by-poll-bound ZPs are of Dhule, Nandurbar, Akola, Washim, Nagpur, and Palghar, and  panchayat samitis coming under their jurisdiction