NEW DELHI: For the
Haryana elections
, Congress has allocated 12 tickets to
Jatavs
and aligned sub-castes within the
Dalit community
, and five to non-Jatavs, showing its continuing reliance on the dominant
Scheduled Caste
community as its support base, in line with its lukewarm response to the debate on
sub-categorisation
.
But the in-office BJP, according to an analysis of candidates, has fielded nine non-Jatavs and eight Jatavs, a clear reflection of its aggressive approval of sub-division of SCs.
The intra-Dalit preference of parties is significant in the light of the recent Supreme Court judgment which green flagged the controversial measure of sub-categorisation, roiling the already volatile politics around the marginalised community.
Haryana holds a special place for Dalits, as it ranks second in the country in terms of the share of the community’s population, with Punjab at the top.
Sub-categorisation implies division of total reservation among “better-off SCs” and “backward SCs” for “equitable distribution” of benefits.
Haryana has 17 reserved seats where only Dalits can contest. But it is the varied preference of sub-castes that gives away the heterogenous nature of the sprawling community and, at the same time, betrays how sub-castes are aligned politically among competitors.
