The deadlock over the Other Backward Classes (OBC) reservation continues to dominate politics in West Bengal with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leadership accusing the State government of “appeasement politics” on Wednesday, a day after Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said that“backwardness”wasthe only benchmark to decide OBC categories
Addressing the State Assembly while tabling the annual report of the West Bengal Commission for Backward Classes for the financial year 2024-25,the Chief Minister had said on Tuesday that a commission set up by the government is holding a survey on 50 new subsections for inclusion in the category.
The Calcutta High Court in May 2024 had struck down the OBC reservation awarded to 77 categories, highlighting a complete lack of legislative policy within the 2012 scheme to classify any group as OBC.
The matter is pending before the Supreme Court. On March 19, 2025, the State government told the Supreme Court that it would complete the fresh OBC survey within three months.
Since the fresh list of OBC reservation is not available, the admission to colleges in the State has not started almost a month after results of Higher Secondary Examinations have been declared.
The State government on Tuesday also tabled in the Assembly an interim report on the new OBC list for reservations.
‘One-sided benefits’
Reacting to the developments, Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari took to social media and said, “If this reservation list is not prepared with the intention of providing ‘one-sided benefits’ exclusively to Muslims, by deliberately depriving Hindus and other communities, then the sun rises in the west.”
Meanwhile, State Education Minister Bratya Basu has assured that there will be no disruption in the academic calender due to the OBC reservation list.
