Congress aims at winning back OBCs

Aware of the deep inroads that the BJP has made among the OBCs, thanks to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's OBC tag, the Congress is now trying to win over at least some sections of them to improve its chances in the coming assembly elections in three states and 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

Congress will be organising an OBC conference at Talkatora stadium on June 11 where Rahul Gandhi will raise the issues related to them along with OBC representatives and leaders from across the states, chairman of the Congress OBC department Tamradhwaj Sahu said.

The conference is expected to be on the lines of SC/ST conference that Congress had organised in April and attended by 10,000 Congress OBC workers and leaders from major states like UP, MP, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Haryana, Bihar, Delhi and Chhattisgarh.

According to National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO), the OBCs constitute the bulk of the country's population at 40.94% while the SC population stands at 19.59%, and ST at 8.63%. The rest constitute 30.80%.

The rise of regional parties like RJD, JDU, SP and BSP etc. over the last 30 odd years and lately the BJP's social engineering has virtually taken away almost all the OBCs and a majority of Dalits from the Congress' fold.

There is strong view within the Congress that to get back into political reckoning on the national scale, it needs to woo both OBCs and Dalits back to it by creating proper outreach programmes for them.

"This conference will be finding answers about how to reach out to the OBCs and the outcomes and recommendations from the conference will be put in programme mode. The idea of the conference it to let the OBC sections bring out their problems and offer suggestions," said a Congress leader.