Jat leader threatens to call for vote against BJP over OBC status

The Akhil Bhartiya Jat Aarakshan Sangharsh Samiti has said it will call for voting against the Bharatiya Janata Party if its demand to include Jats in the OBC category is not met before the UP assembly elections.

"A call, 'No Vote to BJP', will be given during the Vidhan Sabha elections if assurances made by union leaders, including the Prime Minister, are not fulfilled shortly," samiti national president Yashpal Malik on Thursday said.

He said they will appeal to people to not vote for the BJP in the upcoming Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Punjab elections if Jats are not included in the said category.

Malik claimed that the community was assured of reservation at central level under the Other Backward Communities (OBC) category by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on March 26, 2015.

He claimed that the assurance was also seconded by the Union Home Minister Amit Shah the same day.

He further claimed that the Jat leaders from different organisations were given the same promise including withdrawal of cases filed against them during the 2016 Jat agitation by former Union Minister Chaudhary Birendra Singh.

The samiti leader said the orgnisation will launch a public awareness programme against the BJP if this demand is not fulfilled.

"We will not only intensify the stir but influence and convince other section of the society to join our call of 'No Vote to BJP' ensuring defeat of BJP in forthcoming Vidhan Sabha elections in the three states," Veer Pal Singh, the body's national general secretary said.