PANJIM: As the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Goa Pradesh announced formation of OBC Morcha, its leaders denied that the party supports caste politics. State President Sadanand Shet Tanavade said that BJP in fact “never gets into such business.”
“Our party never gets into such business of caste politics. We have treated every religion, every caste as one. BJP might have many committees but for each one of us, party is our priority,” he said after the announcement of constitution of new OBC Morcha on Monday.
The media personnel’s question to the party chief was at the backdrop of Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) declaration that its CM face will be from Bhandari Samaj while Deputy CM will be a Christian.
Incidentally, BJP’s OBC Morcha’s President Girish Uskaikar is from a Bhandari community. To this, Tanavade made clear that a majority from the sub-castes of OBC has been given the post of president. “It is nothing to do with Bhandari Samaj,” he said adding, “We have seven Morchas comprising Mahila, Yuva, Kisan, SC, ST, Minority, OBC… 16 out of 19 sub-castes from the OBC, which have been given representation in the committee have majority from Bhandari Samaj. We have North Goa and South Goa OBC presidents from other sub-castes.”
The committee members, said they work united respective of caste or religion while hinting at caste politics by AAP.
