The two demands made with more strength than before are significant in the way they point to the fulcrum around which Mandal politics, in its third avatar is likely to revolve. Regional parties especially those that came up in the aftermath of the implementation of the Mandal Commission recommendations in the 1990s are at the forefront of these demands. Coupled with this demand, the Mandal parties especially point to the 10% sub-categorisation within the general category reservation for Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) among the upper castes. The nature of democratic politics is such that these changes and mutations are inevitable and will become more and more so. For political parties therefore, especially the BJP, it may be time to draft plans to re-engineer their social engineering formula, this time to accommodate the third coming of Mandal.

Source: The Hindu August 11, 2021 12:45 UTC