Chennai: BSP leader Mayawati advocating economic criteria for reservation to get a foothold in the Dravidian land with her social engineering may backfire for the dalit leader as it could end up antagonising the 68 per cent backward community population in Tamil Nadu, according to observers.
The Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister's statement advocating quota for the poor among the forward communities at a rally here yesterday is seen as an attempt at replicating her successful poll formula of bringing together Dalits and forward classes in Tamil Nadu.
However, in a state like Tamil Nadu, where the foundation for reservation for socially and educationally backward community was laid way back in the early 1920s, Mayawati's formula would be hard to sell, C K Tamizharasan, a Dalit leader and chief of Republican Party of India's Tamil Nadu unit, said.
It might appeal to the six per cent influential Brahmin community, which remains the only major caste that is out of reservation category, besides Dalits, who account for 20 per cent of Tamil Nadu s population, observers said.
But this might not be a vote catcher for the BSP as the party could well end up antagonising the 68 per cent backward community population in the state.
When AIADMK founder late M G Ramachandran introduced economic criteria for reservation for backward castes in 1979, there was a big hue and cry and his party was defeated in the Lok Sabha polls in 1980.
Sensing the mood of people, he not only lifted the economic criteria but also hiked the quota to 50 per cent.
