Even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi are seen battling it out over demonetisation and corruption in the battleground state of Uttar Pradesh, state chief minister Akhilesh Yadav has, like a bolt from the blue, played the caste card and in the process, befuddled his adversaries.
In a move that is bound to put both the BJP and the BSP in a fix ahead of the crucial elections, the state government hurriedly cleared a proposal today to place as many as 17 Other Backward Class (OBC) sub-castes on the list of Scheduled Castes (SC).
It’s significant that these castes that include Kahar, Kashyap, Kewat, Majhi, Machhua, Mallah, Nishad, Kumhar and Prajapati, Bind, Bhar, Rajbhar, Batham, Gaur and Dheemar matter a lot politically because of their numerical strength. Together, they make a huge votebank.
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