BJP, Trinamool wage war of words over West Bengal’s revised OBC list

Leader of Opposition in West Bengal Assembly and BJP Bengal President Suvendu Adhikari. File | Photo Credit: ANI

The Trinamool Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) engaged in a bitter war of words on Wednesday (June 18, 2025) over a new list of other backward class (OBC) communities in West Bengal.

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This comes a day after the Calcutta High Court ordered an interim stay on the State government’s notification of a new OBC list. In May 2024, the High Court had cancelled OBC reservations awarded to 77 categories, citing a lack of legislative policy within the 2012 scheme to classify any group as OBC. In June this year, the State government tabled a revised list.

The Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari, along with BJP MLAs, distributed sweets outside the State Legislative Assembly premises in Kolkata on Wednesday, chanting slogans such as: “OBC bill atke gelo (OBC bill got stayed)“, and “Muslim-der OBC korte parlo na (They could not classify Muslims as OBCs)“.

‘Snatching rights of Hindu OBCs’

“One of the reasons why [West Bengal Chief Minister] Mamata Banerjee looks so disturbed today is yesterday’s stay order on the OBC list. She knows that 17% of Hindu OBCs have been left out. She tried to snatch their rights. On the other hand, she tried to fool nearly two crore Muslims. She thought she could give them OBC certificates like a ‘lollipop’ when she could not give them employment, education, and healthcare,” Mr. Adhikari said.

He added that the Chief Minister has “spelt doom” for the “hard-working Muslims who had dreams of becoming doctors, engineers, or civil servants as general category applicants.”

‘Cannot erase history’

Later in the day, Ms. Banerjee accused the BJP and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) of not wanting the OBC Bill to pass.

“This is for poor people, for the socially and economically backward class. We want reservations to stay for the Scheduled Castes and tribal people. But how can we snatch the rights of the 33% of people who have been here since Partition? Do you not want to help build them as people? 60 castes in the list were non-Muslims. You people burn up when you see Muslims… How can we erase history?” Ms. Banerjee asked.

List prepared by OBC Commission

She added that the Calcutta High Court’s order is an interim stay and not a judgment, and that the government’s legal team is studying it. 

“The government did not prepare the list; it was prepared by the OBC [Commission]. A former senior justice of the Calcutta High Court is part of that. We had done everything to adhere to the High Court’s rules,” the Chief Minister claimed.

The West Bengal Commission for Backward Classes was constituted in 1993 to “examine requests for inclusion of any class of citizens as a backward class in the lists and hear complaints of over-inclusion or under-inclusion of any backward class in such lists,” according to its website. 

Published - June 18, 2025 09:04 pm IST