Yogi Adityanath After Setback In Court

Lucknow:

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath reiterated that the state will give reservations to Other Backward Classes or OBCs in the local bodies and would hold a survey following Supreme Court guidelines. The election will not be held before the survey and reservation and if need be, the state will go to the Supreme Court to challenge the Allahabad High Court’s order for immediate notification of elections, he said.

“We form a commission that will conduct survey of OBCs on the basis of the Supreme Court guidelines. We will not go to elections without providing reservation to OBCs. If required, we will go to the Supreme Court against the High Court’s order,” Yogi Adityanath said shortly after the High Court scrapped the state government’s draft notification on urban local body elections and ordered that the election be held without reservation for OBCs.

Earlier this month, the state issued a provisional list of reserved seats for mayors of 17 municipal corporations, chairpersons of 200 municipal councils and 545 nagar panchayats. Four mayoral seats — Aligarh, Mathura-Vrindavan, Meerut and Prayagraj — were reserved for OBC candidates.

Besides, chairpersons’ seats in 200 municipal councils were reserved for OBCs, 147 of chairpersons’ seats in 545 nagar panchayats were also reserved for OBC candidates.

The reservation for OBCs without the top court mandated survey had drawn criticism from the opposition Samajwafdi Party and a petition was filed in the High Court, objecting to the government’s move.

Today, a division bench of Justices DK Upadhyay and Saurav Lavania annulled the draft notification for reservation of Other Backward Classes.