After the success of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), now a group of 50 engineers who have graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) – the country’s top institute for engineering - have launched a political party called the ‘Bahujan Azad Party’.
The party, still waiting for the approval of the Election Commission of India, claims it will work for the rights of India's backward castes.
“We are a bunch of 50 people, all from different IITs, who have quit our full-time jobs to work for the party,“ the leader of the group Naveen Kumar told PTI.
The group has already launched a campaign on social media, but will not be contesting the upcoming Indian general elections in 2019. Instead, it says it intends to make its first foray into mainstream politics with assembly polls in the eastern state of Bihar in 2020.
The party members, most of whom come from marginalized communities, say they will work towards achieving equality of opportunity for women and people of backward classes in the spheres of education and employment.
The group’s entry into politics is a close reminder of the humble beginnings of the present-day Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who, also like Mr Kumar and his team is an IIT alumnus and has recently created a niche for himself in politics by launching the Aam Aadmi Party.
