The BJP-led Odisha government recently announced a significant decision to grant an 11.25% reservation in state-run higher education institutions to the socially and educationally backward classes (SEBCs), marking the first time that Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in Odisha will receive education quota benefits. This quota complements the already existing 11.25% reservation for OBCs in public employment.

This announcement, cleared by the Cabinet under Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi, has put caste politics back into the spotlight in Odisha. The move is seen as a strategic attempt by the BJP to counter the growing influence of the opposition Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and the Congress, who have intensified their campaigns on social justice and OBC rights in recent times.

Odisha Higher Education Minister Suryabanshi Suraj defended the government’s move, stating, “The Constitution of India has given rights to the backward classes but it remained zero in the past. We ensured 11.25% reservation (in education) in accordance with the Supreme Court ruling of keeping caste-based reservation within 50%.” The state currently reserves 16.25% for Scheduled Castes (SC) and 22.5% for Scheduled Tribes (ST) in education.

However, the BJD has criticized the decision as an “eyewash”, arguing that the exclusion of professional courses such as medical, engineering, and technical education significantly limits the benefits to OBC students. The BJD’s OBC cell chairman Arun Kumar Sahoo pointed out that the government only extended reservation to courses where seats typically remain vacant, thus not addressing critical professional streams.

The criticism was echoed by Congress leader and former Union minister Srikant Jena, who called the announcement a “cruel joke” on Odisha’s OBC youth, lamenting the exclusion of professional education from the quota and branding it a betrayal of the majority backward class population.

The BJP, on the other hand, hailed the move as a historic step toward social justice and promised to undertake mass outreach programs to publicize the decision and expose the BJD’s record on backward class rights.

The OBC issue has been a sensitive political topic in Odisha. Before the 2009 Assembly elections, the BJD government enacted the Orissa Reservation of Posts and Services (for SEBC) Act, 2008, which provided for 27% reservation in jobs for OBCs. This law was challenged in courts, and the reservation percentage was subsequently capped at 11.25% following Supreme Court rulings.

Though no education quota was provided by the BJD earlier, the party has since increased its focus on caste-based demands, with party MPs pushing for a caste census and the Odisha State Commission for Backward Classes (OSCBC) conducting a survey on OBC conditions.

The BJP’s new quota in education is thus seen as an effort to blunt the BJD’s social justice pitch by directly addressing backward class demands in the educational sphere.

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