Aug 31, 2026 15:02 pm IST

Opinion | The OBC Fault Line That Could Shake Up Uttar Pradesh - And BJP

For years, the BJP was propelled by support from the OBCs. Now, cracks have begun to appear in that base

Amitabh Tiwari Amitabh Tiwari Columnist

Amitabh Tiwari Columnist

With Uttar Pradesh headed for assembly elections next year, a contest widely billed as the 'semi-finale' before the 2029 Lok Sabha battle, Rahul Gandhi has once again put OBC politics, caste census, and reservations at the centre of the Congress campaign. The timing is deliberate. Uttar Pradesh sends more MPs to Parliament than any other state, and whoever controls Lucknow shapes the national narrative going into the next general election.

At the heart of Rahul Gandhi's latest offensive is a technical-sounding but politically loaded complaint: the ongoing national census does not carry a dedicated OBC column. The Congress argues this is not an oversight but a deliberate dilution, calling the absence of an OBC field in the questionnaire a serious concern and accusing the government of trying to weaken the caste census exercise.

This complaint arrives at an awkward moment for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). After years of resisting the demand, the Modi government relented and agreed to conduct a caste enumeration alongside the delayed decennial census. For the Congress, that concession itself was proof that sustained pressure had worked. But having won the principle, the Congress is now contesting the method.

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