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In recent times, two demands have been made by the Other Backward Classes (OBCs): A specific column in the Census that can count them like Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) are counted and a constitutional amendment to provide reservation in proportion to their numbers, which would constitute more than 50 per cent of the total population according to the 1931 Census.
The first demand was on the election agenda of the INDIA bloc led by Congress. The NDA, headed by the BJP, argued that the exercise would only sow divisions ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha election. In this election, the BJP, which was expecting to win more than 400 seats, was reduced to 240 seats.
The NDA has since realised that as the biggest beneficiary of OBC votes in 2014 and 2019, its position on the caste census resulted in a decline in its vote share. Even as the number of BJP seats fell, there was a rise in the Congress seat share. The growing demand from OBC associations all over the country for a caste census put pressure on the NDA government to finally take the decision in April 2025 to count the OBC population.
Retrospectively, the lack of published caste data after 1941, especially after Independence, has adversely affected the share of OBCs in education, employment and politics. Both the Kaka Kalelkar Commission and the Mandal Commission used the 1931 caste census for policy recommendations.
Congress, which was the ruling party for much of the period since Independence, never felt the need to revive the caste census, which was conducted by the colonial rulers in 1871-72 to 1931. The party understood the importance of OBC votes only recently, seeking to divert them from the BJP. It’s no wonder that the OBC enumeration has, therefore, become part of the national agenda of Indian politics in the 2020s.
As a continuation of its campaign for the OBC Census, Congress promised a caste survey during the 2023 Telangana Assembly election. It also promised 42 per cent reservation in local bodies. But the party failed to fulfil the latter promise due to judicial hurdles.
Similarly, in Maharashtra too, in 2021, the Court struck down the 27 per cent OBC reservation in local body elections as it failed to fulfil three conditions: Setting up a dedicated commission to study “backwardness”; using the commission’s data to specify the proportion of reservation; and ensuring that total reservation, including for SC, ST and OBC, does not cross the 50 per cent ceiling set by the SC in Indra Sawhney v Union of India (1992).
In Congress-ruled Karnataka, dynamic adjustment is practiced: Wherever the SC and ST population falls below the reservation quota, the OBC quota is raised to 33 per cent, without breaching the 50 per cent ceiling. Uttar Pradesh has 27 per cent OBC reservation in local bodies, while Madhya Pradesh at 14 per cent.
In August, the government of Andhra Pradesh (AP) headed by Chandrababu Naidu took a policy decision to fulfil the promise made by the TDP-led NDA in its “Super Six” election manifesto to increase OBC reservation to 34 per cent. This, however, was struck down by the AP High Court on October 1 — the Supreme Court upheld the decision later that week.
It should be noted that in 1987, NT Rama Rao had introduced the 20 per cent for Backward Classes in local bodies in Andhra Pradesh, which was expanded by N Chandrababu Naidu to 34 per cent. The quota was in operation till 2014. A Congress government was in power, under chief minister Kiran Kumar Reddy, when the High Court struck down the policy, after which the legal hurdles began coming up in state after state. Despite being aware of this history, Chandrababu Naidu has taken the course of approaching the Supreme Court instead of pushing for a constitutional amendment.
During the agitation for the Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) reservation of 10 per cent, following a series of legal battles the NDA government brought the 103rd Constitutional Amendment. For the 34 per cent OBC quota too, OBC associations across the country have been demanding a constitutional amendment. But this demand has been raised in Parliament by neither Congress nor the ruling BJP. Their affection for the BC votebank, on the other hand, remains undiminished.
The writer is professor, department of Political Science, University of Hyderabad
