In a major development aimed at placating its upset core voter base of upper caste and non-reserved categories, the government on Thursday announced the opening of a dialogue with the quota reform campaigners.Chief negotiator during the Cockroach Janta Party protests and Health Minister JP Nadda made the announcement on X.“Following the movement that took place at Jantar Mantar on August 21, cordial discussions were held, as per the pre-determined schedule, with Harsh Dubey, Ran Bahadur Singh Chauhan, Mrityunjay Pathak and members of the team. In this connection, we will meet again soon,” said Nadda.The anti-quota protests were recently held at Jantar Mantar under the banner of National Commission for General Category (NCGC).However, after Nadda made the announcement, divisions in the reservation reform movement came out to the fore with principal player Ajeet Bharti distancing himself from Dubey in indications that there was friction in the group over approach to how it will engage with the government on the main demands.Tagging Nadda, Bharti tweeted: “I just received your post and my heart filled with joy knowing that the government has considered the letter from the Harsh Bhai ji (which didn’t even mention the word reservation) and that you will meet again. You made one mistake: you didn’t bring along Anand Swaroop, the biggest face of the movement! First, you (through your own planted agent) had Harsh Bhai kidnapped (as Harsh ji himself said in the video), and then you made him write a worthless letter with two-bit demands using a blue pen, and now you’re even holding cordial talks.”Bharti said the government shouldn’t pretend to negotiate through its own “planted agent.””If there’s even a shred of shame left and even a bit of concern for the party, then stop playing these games. People have already rejected Harsh because of that ‘Brajesh Pathak stunt’,” said Bharti referring to Dubey meeting UP deputy CM Pathak recently against the unanimity of the movement.The commission — whose main player is Bharti — describes itself as a body established to represent and address concerns of the general category.The principal demands of the commission have been —Introduce a creamy-layer provision within SC/ST reservations so that reservation benefits reach more disadvantaged communitiesHave a One Family, One Reservation, One Time rule to limit reservation benefits so that one family receives reservation benefits only once, aimed at more equitable distributionMandating minimum qualifying marks and ensure seats remain available for the open categoryThe commission has also demanded a white paper reviewing 80 years of reservation, assessing its impact and beneficiaries, and introduce periodic review through a sunset clause.Further, these protesters want a declaration that no private-sector reservations will be allowed.For the first time, the BJP has started a dialogue with the commission. The engagement comes close on the heels of the defeat of BJP candidate in Bihar’s Bankipur Assembly bypoll.The party is widely believed to have been ditched by the upper caste segments in Bankipur which was a seat held by BJP national president Nitin Nabin when he moved to Rajya Sabha.The general category has been agitated since February when UGC equity guidelines came and were widely seen as targeting the general category students by mandating protections on campus only for reserved categories.In fact, the general category students had agitated very strongly that time and even demanded that then education minister Dharmendra Pradhan resign, which he eventually did only after CJP led student protests on NEET UG paper leak.