Lucknow, June 29 (TIWN) In what can be termed as a masterstroke, the Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh has included 17 OBC castes in the Scheduled Castes (SC) list.

 The report said that the move will leave greater space in the OBC quota for the remaining OBC caste groups, and has also fulfilled a 15-year-old demand by these 17 caste groups. The castes added into this list are - Nishad, Bind, Mallah, Kewat, Kashyap, Bhar, Dhivar, Batham, Machua, Prajapati, Rajbhar, Kahar, Pottar, Dhimar, Manjhi, Tuhaha and Gaur, which previously belonged to the Other Backward Castes (OBC) category. 

The move is reportedly bound to benefit the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and further erode the vote base of Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party, ahead of the by-elections to 12 Assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh.