05/03/09

karnataka- caste composition of legislative assembly

The Lingayats and the Vokkaligas continue to be the dominating castes, with as many as 110 seats in the 224-member Karnataka Legislative Assembly. The rest of the 114 seats in the Karnataka Legislative Assembly are shared by the SC/STs (50), Brahmins (11), Muslims (8), Christians (1) and Other Backward Classes (15).
from this news report.

the report goes on to say that the vokkaligas and lingayats together constitute around 26% of the population of the state. from elsewhere, i find that around 4% of the state's residents are brahmins; dalits and adivasis together make up 21% of the state's population. muslims constitute another 12%. one can safely assume, i think, even after excluding all the vokkaliga and lingayat sub-castes who have found their way into the obc list, that the other obcs (185 communities in all) in karnataka make up more than 35% of the state's population. and only 7% of the members of the legislative assembly in the state are from this large section of the state's population.

summing up, in the current karnataka assembly, the brahmins, lingayats and vokkaligas are overrepresented and the other obcs and muslims, as in uttar pradesh, are grossly underrepresented.

No comments:

 
Add to Technorati Favorites