Hyderabad: Telangana Congress‘ political affairs committee (PAC) Saturday constituted a committee to discuss with legal experts on the way forward on implementation of 42% reservations for Backward Classes (BCs) in the local bodies elections. Also, chief minister A Revanth Reddy has decided to implead in the case, that is currently being heard by the Supreme Court, on fixing a time frame for governors and the President to clear bills.The five-member committee will consult legal experts to determine whether the govt can proceed with the enhanced reservations as the two BC Bills were pending with President Droupadi Murmu or if the party should adhere to the existing reservations and allocate a minimum of 42% tickets to BCs in the elections. The committee, which includes ministers Bhatti Vikramarka, N Uttam Kumar Reddy, Ponnam Prabhakar, D Sridhar Babu and D Anasuya (Seethakka), would discuss with legal experts and submit a report to the party and the govt before Aug 28.The PAC, attended by Revanth Reddy, AICC minder of Telangana, Meenakshi Natarajan, PCC president Mahesh Kumar Goud, and others, discussed the BC reservations issue extensively, along with other issues like the ‘Vote Chori’ campaign and the urea crisis at the over three-hour meeting at Gandhi Bhavan on Saturday.The CM said the state govt would implead in the case related to the time frame for the President and appoint two lawyers to argue the Telangana BC Bills, which have been pending for the past five months.“If the state govt files a separate case and fights individually, it might take more time to list the case,” Revanth said. Telangana high court had earlier directed the state govt to hold elections to gram panchayats before Sept 30, and if the elections get deferred, the govt would further lose funds from the Centre, he said.The CM explained the steps taken by the state govt on BC reservations from conducting a socio-economic-caste survey to passing two separate bills. “One is on providing 42% reservations in both education and employment, and another on reservations in local bodies, which is pending with the President,” he said.“Earlier, the KCR govt had brought a legislation limiting total reservations to 50%, and going by that, BCs will not get any benefit. The Congress govt amended the municipal and panchayat raj laws for the enhanced reservations and issued an ordinance,” the CM added.Many leaders who attended the meeting were of the opinion that the party should proceed by giving 42% tickets to BCs to avoid any legal problems, and finally, it was decided to constitute a committee to make a final decision.The PAC decided to support Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Vote Chori’ campaign in Telangana, and Revanth, along with his ministerial colleagues, would attend Rahul’s campaign in Bihar on Aug 26. A campaign logo was also unveiled at the meeting.Deputy CM Bhatti Vikramarka and minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy told the media that the PAC meeting thanked Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, and AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge for choosing Justice (Retd) Sudershan Reddy as vice-presidential candidate from the INDIA bloc.
