New Delhi, April 22: A new political party  has emerged in the national politics. A group of 50 alumni from the prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) across the country have quit their jobs to form a political outfit, Bahujan Samaj Party to fight for the rights of Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST) and Other Backward Classes (OBC). The outfit is waiting for the approval from the Election commission (EC). The party includes former IITians from the Delhi and Kharagpur IITs who plan to work for the downtrodden community. The Bahujan Azad Party claims to work for the upliftment of the marginalized.

Naveen Kumar, a 2015 IIT Delhi graduate, who is leading the group, told PTI, “We are a bunch of 50 people, all from different IITs, who have quit our full-time jobs to work for the party. We have applied to the Election Commission for an approval and are meanwhile doing ground work.” Other members of the party are Vikrant Vatsal, a B.Tech in Biochemical Engineering from IIT Delhi and Sampath Kumar Banoth, M.Tech from IIT Kharagpur and PhD from IIT Roorkee. They want people of the backward class to receive their rights and quota for OBCs.

The members of the party do not want to contest Lok Sabha elections of 2019. Kumar said, “We do not wish to do a hurried job and end up being reduced to just one of those small political outfits with big ambitions. We will begin with contesting the 2020 Bihar Assembly elections and then aim for the next Lok sabha polls.” The most of the members of the party belongs to SC, ST and other backward category (OBC). The party believes that the backward classes have not received their due in terms of education and employment.

The outfit does not have any political backing but some prominent groups are supporting them. They are currently looking to build confidence in the minds of people. “Once we have the registration, we will form small units of the party which will start working on the ground for our target groups. We also do not wish to pitch ourselves as a rival of any political party or ideology,” Kumar added. The Bahujan Azad Party does not aim to showcase itself as a particular party's rival, but work purely for people of backward classes. Among working towards other social causes, education is of top importance to them. N. Paul Divakar, president of the National Campaign for Dalit Human Rights, has welcomed the IITians' initiative.

Poster of the Bahujan Azad Party has been released. The poster has pictures of B R Ambedkar, Subhas Chandra Bose and A P J Abdul Kalam. The IITians have already started a social media campaign.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 22, 2018 10:35 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).