Indore, September 19, 2026 (Yes Punjab News)
A claim made by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi during his ‘Chhatron Ki Goonj’ event in Indore regarding recruitment in Madhya Pradesh has been found incorrect in a fact-check published by the “Jhooth Ki Goonj” platform. The fact-check said Gandhi’s claim that 4.87 lakh posts remained pending because of the 87:13 recruitment formula was not supported by the available record.
Gandhi had claimed that in recruitment drives conducted by the Madhya Pradesh Public Service Commission (MPPSC) over the past eight years, 13 per cent of posts had been kept on hold, resulting in 4.87 lakh pending posts.
According to the fact-check, the 87:13 formula was not in operation for eight years. The relevant Madhya Pradesh General Administration Department circular was issued on September 29, 2022, meaning the mechanism could not have affected recruitment exercises conducted throughout the preceding eight-year period.
The dispute over the recruitment arrangement is linked to the decision of the then Congress government led by Kamal Nath in 2019 to increase reservation for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) from 14 per cent to 27 per cent. The move led to legal challenges concerning the constitutional validity of the enhanced quota.
The 87:13 arrangement did not stop recruitment altogether. According to the fact-check, appointments continued against 87 per cent of advertised vacancies, while the remaining 13 per cent were kept subject to the outcome of the legal dispute. Separate provisional lists for OBC and unreserved-category candidates were prepared to enable appointments in accordance with the final court decision.
The Madhya Pradesh Employees Selection Board’s official records also show recruitment processes in which separate 87 per cent and 13 per cent lists were maintained.
The fact-check further said that the Madhya Pradesh High Court in January 2025 upheld the 87:13 arrangement as an interim mechanism, allowing recruitment to proceed while protecting the claims of candidates from both categories pending the final outcome of the litigation.
Available reports cited in the fact-check estimate that around 10,000 posts across various Madhya Pradesh government recruitments were affected by the arrangement. This is substantially lower than the 4.87 lakh figure cited by Gandhi.
The fact-check concluded that while the 87:13 mechanism created temporary uncertainty in some recruitment processes, the claim that nearly five lakh MPPSC posts had remained pending for eight years because of the formula was not supported by the timeline of the 2022 circular or the cited records.
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