The Congress has reiterated lifting the 50 per cent cap on reservation with OBC voters deciding the fate in eight out of the 10 remaining Lok Sabha seats of Jharkhand going for polls in the subsequent phases.

Congress national general secretary (in charge of communications) Jairam Ramesh informed the media at Ranchi on Wednesday afternoon that after coming to power they would take steps to lift the 50 per cent cap on reservation.

“Tamil Nadu is the only state in the country where the limit of reservation is more than 50 per cent (it is 69 per cent). Because during the time of former Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao, the reservation policy of Tamil Nadu was included in the ninth schedule of the Constitution. When our government is formed, we will work to increase the reservation by removing this 50 per cent upper limit,” said Ramesh at the Congress headquarters in Ranchi.

Incidentally, bills passed by the state government after the nod of the central government in the form of an amendment to include the bills in the ninth schedule of the Constitution places the bills beyond judicial review.

“We will work to include the reservation policies of many states including Jharkhand in the ninth schedule of the Constitution,” added Ramesh.

The Jharkhand Assembly under former chief minister Hemant Soren (arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on alleged money laundering charges on January 31 and is currently under judicial custody) had on November 11, 2022, passed the ‘OBC reservation bill’, wherein the quota of the other backward classes (OBC) would increase to 27% (up from 14%), for Schedule Tribes (ST) it would go up to 28% (from 26%) and 12% for the Scheduled Castes (up from 10%). After including 10% reservation for EWS (economically weaker section), the total reservation in state government jobs would go up to 77%.

The bill had been sent to the Raj Bhavan for sending it to the Centre to take steps to include it in the ninth schedule of the Constitution.

However, the ruling JMM-Congress-RJD government has alleged that the governors (both former governor Ramesh Bais and current C.P. Radhakrishnan) have returned the bill stating it to be contrary to the constitutional provisions.

Political observers claim that the statement is aimed at sending a message to the OBC communities, considered traditionally BJP supporters, to shift allegiance and turn to the INDIA bloc.

“Only two ST reserved seats are left for polls (Dumka and Rajmahal) in Jharkhand, in the remaining (eight) general seats, OBC support is crucial for INDIA bloc candidates along with the tribals, minorities and Dalits. The message is aimed at wooing the OBC chunk who have so far been loyal to the saffron party and show that it is the BJP which is obstructing the JMM-Congress-RJD government move to give them reservation benefit,” said Ranchi-based political columnist Faisal Anurag.

Congress candidates K.N. Tripathy (Chatra), J.P. Patel (Hazaribagh), Yashaswini Sahay (Ranchi) and Pradeep Yadav (Godda) are in a close fight with BJP candidates in their constituencies.