KOLKATA: Bengal’s new OBC list, tabled by state govt in the assembly on Tuesday, has minor changes compared to the previous list. While the earlier list, struck down by the Calcutta High Court, had 113 OBC subgroups with 77 Muslim and 36 others, the new OBC list has 140 subgroups, 80 of them Muslim.Supreme Court is hearing a challenge by Bengal govt against the HC scrapping of the earlier list, impacting around 5 lakh OBC certificates. The state had told the SC that it would complete its fresh OBC survey by the end of June. The survey tabled on Tuesday also indicated that state is hearing representations from 50 more OBC groups.The percentage of Muslims in the new OBC list is 57.1. While there are 73.4% Muslims in the OBC ‘A’ category (in a total of 49 subgroups, 36 are Muslims and 13 non-Muslims), OBC ‘B’ has 48.3% Muslims (there are 91 subgroups, of which 44 are Muslims, and 47 are non-Muslims).The HC ruling had reduced 17% OBC reservations in the state to 7%. The report tabled on Tuesday allows Bengal govt to restore OBC reservation to 17%, allocating 7% for OBC ‘A’ and 10% for OBC ‘B’. This is set to increase slightly with 50 additional groups being evaluated.The legal deadlock on the OBC issue had an overriding impact in Bengal, from pausing admissions to schools, colleges and universities to state govt recruitments.CM Mamata Banerjee, speaking in the assembly on Tuesday, had said that the issuance of OBC certificates for college admissions and govt jobs would resume immediately. “Many recruitment boards kept the process on hold due to the legal confusion. That will now be resolved,” Banerjee had said, adding, “Backwardness, not religion, was the sole criterion in the fresh OBC survey.”On Tuesday, Bengal leader of opposition Suvendu Adhikari had alleged that the OBC list was flawed and stemmed from “appeasement politics”. He said that there were only 11 Muslim groups out of 66 OBC groups before 2010. Adhikari went on to claim that OBC in Bengal meant ‘one-sided beneficiary’.Questioning Adhikari’s facts, Trinamool Congress had said in a statement on Tuesday: “Suvendu Adhikari, we all know that ‘divide and rule’ is the official policy of BJP, and your only agenda for the 2026 elections is to pit Hindus against Muslims. But CM Mamata Banerjee has made it crystal clear that backwardness, not religion, is the sole criterion for OBC status. The new list was prepared with that principle in mind. So stop misleading the people with your lies.”
