Aam Aadmi Party convener and former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday raised the issue of reservation to Delhi’s Jat community. Kejriwal said that the Jat community of Delhi has been betrayed by the BJP for the last 10 years. In a letter to the PM, Kejriwal referred to the dates when the Bharatiya Janata Party promised reservation for Delhi’s Jats.
Kejriwal alleged that Delhi’s Jat community does not get reservation in any central government college, university or institution. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah remembered Delhi’s Jats before the elections. The Jat community of Rajasthan gets reservation within Delhi but the Jat community of Delhi does not. There are five more castes in the Delhi state OBC list, which are not in the Centre’s OBC list.
On the face of it, Arvind Kejriwal’s demand for Jat reservation may seem like a masterstroke for the Aam Aadmi Party for the Delhi Assembly elections, but the reality is otherwise.
Jat reservation did not work for Congress in Haryana.
The Jat reservation movement is very active in Haryana. While there was never any movement for it in Delhi. In 2012, the previous Congress Bhupinder Singh Hooda government in Haryana granted reservation to the Jat, Jat Sikh, Rad, Bishnoi and Tyagi communities under Special Backward Classes. Considering the demand of the Congress government in Haryana, the UPA government also announced in 2014 to bring the Jats under the OBC category in 9 states including Haryana, but the Supreme Court refused to consider the Jats as backward. The order was cancelled.
After the order of the Punjab and Haryana High Court on 19 September 2015, the Khattar government had to withdraw the notification giving reservation to five castes including Jats. This notification was issued during the Huda regime.
It is worth noting that the Hooda government did not like the attempt to give reservation to the Jats. The polarization of Jat votes led to other castes voting with the BJP. After this, Bharatiya Janata Party has formed the government in the state of Haryana for the third consecutive time. Something similar may happen in Delhi. At present the number of Jat community here is not as large as in Haryana.
Supporting Jat reservation in Delhi risks angering Gujjars and other castes.
According to various estimates, the Jat community constitutes about 8 to 10 percent of the total population in Delhi, with Jats dominating a total of 8 assembly seats in Delhi. Nangloi, Mandka, Najafgarh, Bajwasan and Karari etc. are considered Jat majority seats. Keeping in mind the Jat vote bank, the Aam Aadmi Party in Delhi has given tickets to the people of this community in these 5 seats. Aam Aadmi Party has fielded Jasbir Karala from Mandaka, Raghuvendra Shokin from Nangloi, Virender Kadian from Delhi Cantt, Pooja Naresh Balian from Uttamnagar and Somesh Shokin from Matiala.
But by fielding Parvesh Verma against CM Arvind Kejriwal, BJP has given a hope to the Jat community that if he wins, he too can become the Chief Minister. Usually the chief ministerial candidate can be offered the post of chief minister if he defeats him. The situation has become that Arvind Kejriwal was being told that he might file nomination papers from another seat as well. However, Arvind Kejriwal has refused to be a candidate from any other place.
It’s not just that. There is rivalry between the Jat and Gujjar communities in Delhi. Although the number of Gujars in Delhi is half that of Jats, the Gujars are no less important in terms of seats. Out of 364 villages in the capital, 225 villages are dominated by Jat community while 70 villages are dominated by Gujras. In Badarpur, Tughlaqabad, Sangam Vihar, Ghonda, Gokulpuri, Karawalnagar and Okhla, Gujjar community voters are very important. Along with this, if the polarization of Jat voters in Delhi is also towards Aam Aadmi Party, then Gujars and other OBC castes can obviously go with BJP.
Why was the issue of Jat reservation remembered after 12 years, questions will surely arise.
The biggest crisis for the Aam Aadmi Party in Delhi has become one of credibility. Even after leaders like Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia went to jail, the BJP has not been able to raise the issue of corruption. But due to Arvind Kejriwal doing the opposite of the image he had created, people have started calling his politics hypocritical. People will surely ask why he was remembered for demanding reservation for Jats in the election. He has been the Chief Minister of Delhi for almost 12 years. A common Jat will surely question why the government has not taken notice of this matter so far.
Delhi Assembly Election Kejriwal on Jat Reservation
