Desperate to hold back Muslim votes in the forthcoming Panchayat elections, the West Bengal government led by the Trinamool Congress has decided to include 33 more categories in the OBC list.





According to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, will bring 99 per cent of the Muslim community in the OBC net.



“At present there are 65 communities in the OBC category and today the cabinet has taken a decision to include 33 more castes and sub-castes into the list which will bring 98 of the identified 143 castes in the state under OBC category,” Mamata Banerjee told reporters at State Headquarters Writers’ Building on Wednesday.



“This will bring 99 per cent of the Muslim community under this category,” Mamata claimed. Muslims comprise 26 per cent of the electorate of the state.



Terming the decision “historic,” she said: “We have taken the policy decision in the cabinet meeting on Wednesday. In the next Assembly session, we will bring the bill. Once the bill is passed, we will expedite the process so that the listed communities can avail the opportunities at the earliest”.



Slamming the Left Front Government, she said: “Previously the reservation for OBC in the state was 7 per cent but it was lifted to 17 per cent in 2010. The previous Left Front government to take the advantage of this and to provide scope to their party workers made haste and without making any survey included different communities into this category. We did proper survey and after careful consideration added another 33 communities. We will bring the bill in the next assembly.”



Asked about the rest 45 communities which are left outside the category, Mamata who left for Delhi on Wednesday said: “We are considering another seven or eight communities. We will decide this very soon.”



The chief minister justified her decision to provide a monthly honorarium of Rs 2,500 to Imams, a housing scheme and stipends for their children a month back.



“They are not given the honorarium considering their religion, but it is given on the basis of their socio-economic condition,” she said.



“They have a strong contribution in society. They actively participate in the social awareness programme like pulse polio and other campaigns,” she said.



“Our government equally extends our help to Ramkrishna Mission at Belur,” she justified.

Prior to Wednesday’s announcement, on April 9, Banerjee announced more sops for the Muslim community, including new loan schemes, creating an employment bank and promising official stamp on 10,000 madrasas.



The shift of minority votes from the Left Front in favour of the Trinamool Congress is one of the reasons for the electoral reverses suffered by the Left parties in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections in West Bengal as well as in the state Assembly polls which saw the Trinamool Congress score a landslide victory.