The BJP has expanded its voter base among the OBC community in the Narendra Modi era. This has been sought to be negated by the Congress party. This election season, the Prime Minister is going all out in propagating the view that Rahul Gandhi's aim is to reduce the quota enjoyed by Hindu OBCs and privilege Muslims at the cost of backward Hindus.
At a rally on Wednesday in Madhya Pradesh's Betul, Modi spoke of the Sonia Gandhi experiment in the YS Rajasekhar Reddy era. "When the Congress government was formed at the Centre (way back in 2004), they introduced religion-based reservations in (then undivided) Andhra Pradesh. The Congress-led UPA government was not completely successful in its plans," Modi said. Earlier, he reminded the voters that the attempts to introduce Muslim quotas at the union level were stalled by the Supreme Court in the early 2010s.
"The Congress, to this day, wants to play the very same game. It wants to snatch away the share of reservations that OBCs enjoy in Karnataka," Modi said, attacking the Siddaramaiah government.
The PM added that the Congress has included the entire Muslim population in Karnataka under the OBC category. "This action of Congress is a warning signal for the OBC community of the entire country," he added.
If Modi's pitch against Muslim quotas works, the BJP will see its vote share among OBCs intact.
