Hyderabad: Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy on Thursday accused the BJP and BRS of colluding to obstruct the implementation of an enhanced 42 per cent reservation for Backward Classes (BCs) in Telangana.
Addressing a press conference in Delhi, the Chief Minister said that the Telangana government’s efforts to secure approval for key BC quota bills and an ordinance were stalled both at Raj Bhavan and Rashtrapati Bhavan due to the conspiracies of the BJP and the BRS.
Revanth Reddy alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and home minister Amit Shah exerted pressure on the President to not meet the Telangana delegation regarding the BC quota Bills, which is why the President denied them an appointment.
The Chief Minister, who, along with his Cabinet colleagues, party MPs, MLAs, and MLCs, camped in Delhi for three days, staged a protest at Jantar Mantar to press for Presidential assent to the Bills passed by the Telangana Legislature. They were joined by leaders of I.N.D.I.A bloc parties. “Despite our efforts, the BJP-led Centre and its allies in the BRS blocked our attempts,” Revanth Reddy alleged.
He said the BJP, which has always been against OBC reservations, blocked two Bills passed by the Assembly to provide 42 per cent reservations in education and employment to the community. “These bills have been lying with the President for over four months.”
The then BRS government, in 2018, had capped overall reservations at 50 per cent in local bodies through the Panchayat Raj Act, reducing BC reservations from 32 to 23 per cent, Revanth Reddy said.
He added that the Congress government had brought in an ordinance to remove the 50 per cent cap to enable 42 per cent quota for the BC community in local bodies, but the Governor referred it to the President for approval. “Now these two bills and the ordinance have been blocked at Rashtrapati Bhavan, proving the BJP-BRS nexus,” Revanth Reddy said.
He said the Congress Political Affairs Committee (PAC) will meet in Hyderabad to decide the party’s next course of action on the issue. It will finalise what measures should be taken on behalf of both the Congress and the state government to achieve the BC quota, he added.
The Chief Minister outlined three options before the state government for implementing the BC quota. “One, we issue a GO bypassing the 50 per cent cap, but it will be stayed in court. Two, we postpone local body elections to avoid the legal hurdle, but that will stop Central funds to local bodies, hurting governance. Three, we allocate 42 per cent of party tickets to BCs in the upcoming elections and build pressure on other parties to follow suit,” he explained.
Revanth Reddy came down heavily on the BJP and BRS, calling them anti-BC forces. “The BRS didn’t even offer moral support to the 42 per cent quota, while the BJP blocked it citing the 50 per cent cap. This exposes their true colours,” he said.
Highlighting the Congress’s commitment to the issue, he recalled that the state government had completed a caste survey within a year of coming to power, as promised by Rahul Gandhi during his Bharat Jodo Yatra. “Based on the survey, we passed bills in the Assembly providing a 42 per cent quota to BCs in local bodies, education, and employment,” he said.
Revanth Reddy also slammed what he called the BJP’s duplicity, citing examples where Muslim individuals had benefited from OBC reservations — including in Gujarat when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was Chief Minister, and in Rajasthan. “Now the BJP wants to remove Muslims from the OBC list to accommodate others, which is a communal and divisive agenda,” Revanth Reddy said.
He criticised Union minister G. Kishan Reddy’s comments against Muslim leadership and invited him to Hyderabad or offered to go to Delhi to provide statistics on the BC quota. “If the BJP is serious, let them show how they’ll remove Muslims and still increase the BC quota,” he challenged.
Revanth Reddy said Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge had spent over four hours in Delhi listening carefully to the Telangana BC survey findings and had expressed intent to take the Telangana model nationwide.
Blaming the BJP for rushing economically-weaker section reservations and farm laws through Parliament within days, while blocking Telangana’s BC quota Bills for months, Revanth Reddy said the only solution is to defeat Modi.
“From 2004 to 2014, the Congress ruled the country. We will return to power under Rahul Gandhi’s leadership in 2029 and ensure justice to BCs,” he declared. “Until the BJP stops spreading lies about the BC quota, I will continue to speak the truth,” he said.
