Hyderabad: The budget session will start on Wednesday with governor Jishnu Dev Varma’s address to the to the joint session of the council and assembly. It will test the strategies of Congress, BRS, and BJP when the three bills for 42% reservation to Backward Classes (BCs) in education and employment, local bodies, and the Schedule Castes (SC) categorisation are placed in the House.
The state budget is likely to be presented on March 19, after the three crucial bills are taken up by the assembly. However, the business advisory committee (BAC) meeting, to be held after the governor’s maiden address to the joint session, would take a final call on the business to be transacted and the number of days the session will continue.
Ahead of rural and urban local body elections, the three main parties would try to please BCs and SCs. The caste survey conducted by the Congress govt revealed that the population of BCs, including BC-E category Muslims, is 53.66% , while that of SCs is 17.43%, both put together over 70%. As a result, BRS and BJP might not oppose it but are expected to strategically corner the govt over the BC population (excluding BC-E Muslims) being shown at 46.25%, compared to 52% as per the Samagra Kutumba Survey (SKS) done by the previous BRS govt in 2014. However, the ruling Congress has already termed the SKS as an unscientific and unofficial report.
Sources did not rule out the possibility of the House having a special discussion on the proposed delimitation of parliamentary constituencies to be taken up by the central govt and its impact on south Indian states, particularly Telangana. Later, an all-party delegation led by the chief minister would visit New Delhi to meet the Prime Minister to push for constitutional amendments on BC reservations and seek justice on delimitation.
The assembly session is likely to be interesting with the possibility of the leader of the opposition, K Chandrasekhar Rao, attending it, not being ruled out. KCR had a detailed meeting with party legislators on Tuesday where they discussed the strategy to be adopted in the budget session and various issues.
As per the tentative schedule, both the assembly and council would debate the motion of thanks to the governor’s address from Thursday. Subsequently, the BC quota and SC sub-classification bills are likely to be taken up by the House either on Saturday or Monday, with Friday being a holiday on account of Holi. The annual budget for the 2025-26 fiscal is likely to be presented by deputy chief minister Bhatti Vikramarka on March 19.
A delegation of Congress leaders led by its GHMC floor leader Daripally Raja Shekar Reddy, in a memorandum to assembly speaker Gaddam Prasad Kumar, urged him to reconsider the payment of salary to the leader of the opposition K Chandrasekhar Rao, as he fails to fulfil his duties as LoP by attending assembly sessions.
