The Mohan Charan Majhi government’s decision to constitute a Commission to assess the political representation of Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (SEBCs) and their political backwardness in local self-government institutions, appears aimed not only at addressing anomalies in reservation policy but also at strengthening the Bharatiya Janata Party’s support among these communities.
The Commission, headed by retired Orissa High Court judge Justice Pramath Patnaik, has been constituted ahead of the 2027 panchayat and urban local body elections. Its formation signals the government’s intent to restore reservation for SEBCs, a sizeable section of the State’s population, in local bodies — something that was absent in the 2022 elections.
A 27% quota for backward classes had been in place in Odisha’s local body elections from 1995 to 2017. Under the Orissa Panchayat Samiti (Amendment) Act, 1995, not less than 27% of the seats filled through direct election in every Samiti were to be reserved for backward-class citizens as referred to in Article 243-D(6) of the Constitution.
The State government, however, could not provide the 27% quota for OBCs and SEBCs in the 2022 Panchayati Raj institution elections after the reservation was challenged in the Orissa High Court on the ground that the Supreme Court-mandated ‘triple test’ had not been fulfilled. The State was subsequently forced to withdraw the 27% quota.
Reservations capped
Replying to a question from Biju Janata Dal MLA Ranendra Pratap Swain, Panchayati Raj Minister Rabinarayan Naik said the State Government had, following the Supreme Court’s ‘triple test’ mandate in the K. Krishnamurthy case and orders of the Orissa High Court, amended the Odisha Grama Panchayat Act, 1964, the Odisha Panchayat Samiti Act, 1959, and the Odisha Zilla Parishad Act, 1991, in 2021. The amendments capped the combined reservation for SCs, STs and OBCs at 50%, thereby affecting the earlier 27% quota for OBCs and SEBCs.
Under the latest notification, the commission has been tasked with determining the rural and local-body-wise proportion of SEBC citizens to the total population on the basis of official records, reports, surveys and other available data. It will also conduct a contemporaneous empirical inquiry into the nature and implications of the political backwardness of SEBCs, particularly their representation in local bodies.
Government sources said the Commission was formed along the lines of the Madhya Pradesh government’s initiative to generate empirical data to meet the Supreme Court’s ‘triple test’ requirement. The Madhya Pradesh government subsequently secured a favourable Supreme Court order enabling reservation for backward classes in local body elections.
The decision has also acquired political overtones. Former Union Education Minister and senior BJP leader Dharmendra Pradhan thanked the Chief Minister for constituting the commission to protect the interests of SEBC citizens and ensure their political representation and rights in panchayats and urban local bodies.
“Through this historic decision, the accurate reflection of the SEBC community’s numbers, representation and issues can now take place in the State’s rural and urban self-governance institutions,” Mr. Pradhan said.
TIming questioned
Mr. Swain, however, said the BJP government should have followed the Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh models much earlier. “We had fielded more than 27% SEBC candidates in the last local body polls. The representation of SEBCs among candidates will definitely go up further in the forthcoming elections,” he said.
Senior Congress leader and former Union Minister Srikant Jena also questioned the timing of the commission’s formation. “The BJP Government came to power two and a half years ago. It is well established that local body polls will be held in 2027. Why, then, did the State Government constitute the commission with only a few months left before the elections? The commission may not submit its recommendations in the next three to four months,” he alleged.
Mr. Jena alleged that amid a growing anti-BJP sentiment across the country, the State government could use the non-finalisation of the commission’s report as a pretext to delay the elections.
Veteran journalist Rabi Das, however, said that irrespective of the technical grounds for setting up the commission, the BJP government had sent a political message that it was addressing the concerns of SEBCs in the State.
“The Mohan Majhi government had earlier provided 11.25% reservation for students belonging to this category in professional higher educational institutions, including engineering and medical institutions. The latest decision to constitute the commission is also being seen as an effort by the Government to protect the interests of SEBCs,” Mr. Das said.
No credible data
There is no credible data on the exact population of Odisha’s 216 SEBC communities, though political leaders across party lines claim that SEBCs account for more than 50% of the State’s population. Odisha has traditionally not been associated with overt caste-based politics. However, of late political parties have increasingly sought to consolidate support among tribals, Dalits and SEBCs.
The candidatures of President Droupadi Murmu and Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi have been viewed as part of the BJP’s strategy to attract tribal voters. With the latest move to establish a commission on SEBC representation, the politics surrounding the community has now gained fresh momentum.
Published – October 09, 2026 02:23 am IST
