Former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal with party leaders addressing the media on Jat reservation issue on Thursday.
| Photo Credit: SUSHIL KUMAR VERMA

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday alleged that the BJP has been “cheating” the Jat community of Delhi by not adding them to the Central government’s Other Backward Classes (OBC) list, “despite multiple promises”.

Hitting back, BJP’s New Delhi candidate Parvesh Sahib Singh said Mr. Kejriwal’s political foothold seems to be “slipping”, as he has “started dividing Delhi into caste lines” even though he “never remembered” the Jat community in the past 11 years.

Earlier in the day, addressing a press conference, Mr. Kejriwal said, “Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, and the BJP have committed a big fraud. There is an OBC list of the Delhi government, and the Jat community is part of it. The Central government has an OBC list, but Delhi’s Jat community is not a part of it. So, when students go to take admission at any Central government university [for education] or bodies such as Delhi Police, DDA [for employment], Delhi’s Jat community does not get reservation”.

The AAP chief highlighted that Rajasthan’s Jat community was on the Centre’s OBC list. “So, Rajasthan’s Jat community gets reservation in Delhi University, but Delhi’s Jat community does not get reservation,” he underscored.

“If the Centre does not listen, today Kejriwal is promising to the Jat community that I will fight with the Centre for you and get it done,” he said.

However, Mr. Singh said that to add a community to the reservation list, a proposal should first be approved by the State government. “For Jats or any caste to be included in the OBC list, the State government must approve the proposal and send it to the OBC Commission. Kejriwal’s government held special Assembly sessions but used them only to criticise the Centre and the Lieutenant-Governor, never for approving the OBC inclusion for Jats,” he said.