Centre confirms recommendation to drop 35 communities from WB OBC list

West Bengal had originally proposed 46 communities for Central OBC status in 2011, and after the NCBC’s review, 37 were approved and notified in 2014.

IANS, Kolkata, Dec 3, 2025 : The decision of the National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC) to strike down 35 castes from West Bengal in the central Other Backward Classes list, all from the Muslim community, proves the appeasement politics pursued by the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress government in the state, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said on Wednesday.

The information on the NCBC’s move came through a reply given by Union Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment B. L. Verma to an unstarred question raised by Jagannath Sarkar, the BJP’s Lok Sabha member from Ranaghat in Nadia district of West Bengal.

“The National Commission for the Backward Classes has given its advice for the exclusion of 35 castes from the Central List of OBCs for the state of West Bengal on 03.01.2025,” Verma’s reply said.

Reacting to this, the BJP’s Information Technology cell chief and the party’s central observer for West Bengal, Amit Malviya, issued a statement on Wednesday morning saying that the step by the NCBC raised serious questions about the grouping of religious communities under OBC quotas for scoring political gain, which in turn denied genuinely backward Hindu groups their fair share.

“The Modi government is correcting decades of appeasement-led distortions and ensuring real social justice based on backwardness, not vote-bank politics. Mamata Banerjee’s regressive politics have run their course,” Malviya said.

Earlier this month, the Supreme Court deferred the hearing in the West Bengal OBC list case for four weeks and made it clear that the Calcutta High Court should not continue with further proceedings while the matter is before the apex court.

In an interim order issued on June 17 this year, a Division Bench of the Calcutta High Court had directed the West Bengal government not to publish the final notification for the new OBC list till July 31 this year.

Centre Receives NCBC Recommendation to Remove 35 Communities from West Bengal’s Central OBC List

New Delhi, Dec 04, 2025: The Centre has informed the Lok Sabha that it has received the National Commission for Backward Classes' (NCBC) recommendation to remove 35 communities from West Bengal’s Central OBC list. The recommendation came after the NCBC reviewed the communities added to the list in 2014.

According to the Ministry of Social Justice, the NCBC sent its recommendation in January 2025. The commission had examined 37 communities included in the Central OBC list in 2014, most of which were Muslim communities, and recommended the exclusion of 35 communities.

West Bengal had originally proposed 46 communities for Central OBC status in 2011, and after the NCBC’s review, 37 were approved and notified in 2014. The commission began re-examining these entries in 2023.

The NCBC's recommendation follows repeated non-appearances by West Bengal’s Chief Secretary at hearings on the inclusion of castes and communities in the Central OBC list. The Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment noted that the Chief Secretary missed five scheduled hearings in 2024, reflecting procedural challenges and tensions between the State and the Commission.

The decision comes as the Supreme Court hears petitions on Muslim groups listed under West Bengal’s State OBC categories, adding political sensitivity ahead of the State Assembly elections early next year. If implemented, the removal of these 35 communities would affect access to central government reservations in education, jobs, and other welfare schemes, with significant implications for social mobility and economic opportunities.

Under the 102nd Constitutional Amendment, any change to the Central OBC list requires Parliament’s approval and presidential notification, meaning the NCBC’s recommendation is only the first step.

BJP leader Amit Malviya reacted on Wednesday, stating that all the communities recommended for exclusion were Muslim and criticised the West Bengal government’s classification decisions.

He said the Centre was “correcting decades of appeasement-driven distortions and ensuring true social justice based on backwardness, not vote-bank politics.”

The Ministry of Social Justice has not yet indicated when the recommendation will be placed before Parliament for final approval.