‘When will you add Delhi’s Jats to Centre’s OBC list?’: Arvind Kejriwal asks PM Modi, Amit Shah

Kejriwal met a delegation of Jat leaders at his residence. The community holds a significant chunk of votes in some of 70 assembly constituencies in Delhi, especially in the outer areas.

“The Jats here are included in Delhi’s OBC list but not in the Centre’s list. Jats from Rajasthan can get admissions in the Delhi University and its colleges, jobs in the AIIMS, Safdarjung Hospital and all the central government organisations but not the Jats of Delhi,” PTI quoted Kejriwal as saying at a press conference.

“The top two leaders of the country — Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah — had promised the Jat community of Delhi that they will be given OBC reservation at the central level but the promise remains unfulfilled,” he added.

“I want to ask Modi, Shah and other BJP leaders, when will they include Delhi’s Jats in the Centre’s OBC list?” he questioned.

In a post on X, the AAP national convenor said the delegation of Jat leaders, who met him, expressed anger over being “betrayed” by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on the issue of reservation for the last 10 years and the “injustice” done to them.

He asserted that the AAP “supports the justified demand of the community”.

BJP called Kejriwal’s demand an ‘election gimmick’

Last week, Kejriwal said he had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, demanding the inclusion of Delhi’s Jats in the Centre’s OBC list.

Hitting back at Kejriwal, the BJP had called his demand an “election gimmick”.

“For the last 10 years, the government that was in power in Delhi with a complete majority did not raise this issue in the Vidhan Sabha or any public platform…Granting reservations is a subject of the state government,” BJP’s Lok Sabha MP Kamaljeet Sehrawat was quoted by ANI as saying.

“Kailash Gahlot, who has left the party, has confirmed that he had told the former Delhi CM 2-3 times about the inclusion of Delhi’s Jaat community in central reservations. One of the main reasons for Delhi’s Jaat community not being included in central reservations is former Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal’s government,” Sehrawat, who belongs to the Jat community, said.

“Jat reservation is just a political stunt because the AAP is on a ventilator, and that’s why they are resorting to such tactics. I am proud to be a Jat, and I was made the NDMC vice-chairman by the BJP,” BJP leader and NDMC vice chairperson Kuljeet Singh Chahal said.

(With PTI, ANI inputs)