Maharashtra govt to legislate, assemble empirical data for OBC quota

Ajit Pawar notified the state Assembly that they are firm on postponing the local bodies polls until the 27 per cent quote is restored.

Maharashtra government plans to present a bill in the Assembly on Monday to take away the State Election Commission's (SEC) powers of ward delimitation and creation. At the same time, the former collects empirical data required to restore the Other Backward Classes (OBC) quota for local elections.

Ajit Pawar, Deputy Chief Minister of Mahashtra, has said that they are firm that they will postpone the local bodies' polls until the 27 per cent quota is restored. He added that they would draft legislation along the line of Madhya Pradesh. 

Ajit Pawar said, "We'll hold a Cabinet meet on Friday evening and adopt measures like Madhya Pradesh. We'll draft a bill on the line of Madhya Pradesh so that we can examine the ward delimitation and formation ourselves." He added that they would present it before both the house on Monday and see if they get it cleared. They will prepare the empirical data and only then hold elections by giving representation to OBCs. 

The statements came a day after the Supreme Court ordered the SEC to hold local government elections without the 27 per cent OBC quota. It rejected the state backward commission's interim report recommending citing "lack of rationale" and "absence of contemporaneous data."

The apex court criticised the report for being illogical. The report accepted the authenticity of some data only because Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray was present at the meeting when it was submitted to the commission in January, as per the report. The court ordered the authorities not to act on the report. It directed the commission to continue its investigation using current data and submit a report with rationales that stand judicial scrutiny.

Previously, the court suppressed an ordinance for 27 per cent reservation for the OBCs in local body polls. 

The state government cited the report and requested the court to reserve the seats for OBCs. In December, the quota was stayed due to the commission's failure to make a recommendation.

The Bharatiya Janata Party leader, Pravin Darekar, slammed the state government for its failure to secure the quota for the numerically and politically significant community. 

The state Legislative Council's opposition leader stated, "The state government wasted a year accusing the Centre. They had a year to prepare empirical data; however, they failed. The government isn't serious about the OBC political quota. Due to the government's irresponsibility, there is considerable unrest in the state as Maharashtra has a large population of OBCs. He added, "How does the administration intend to proceed?"

In response, Pawar claimed that the government was not careless. They have the best legal minds for the case. 

The Legislative Council was adjourned once after the opposition requested that the day's proceedings be suspended to debate on the quota issue.