As 42% quota for Telangana Backward Classes awaits assent, faces court hurdle, parties find a workaround for rural polls
While Congress govt passed two Bills and issued an ordinance and an executive order to ensure 42% quota, HC has stayed the order, while Bills and ordinance continue to await Presidential assent
While Chief Minister Revanth Reddy had promised to offer 42% of the poll tickets to BCs, Congress leaders claimed that the party has extended support to more BC candidates this time than in any other election.
With the A Revanth Reddy-led Congress government in Telangana failing so far to implement its election promise to provide 42% reservation for the Backward Classes (BCs) in the local body elections – despite the Assembly passing two Bills, and the government issuing an ordinance and an executive order to ensure it – the state’s major parties have still found a way to circumvent the situation.
After the Telangana Assembly passed two Bills raising the BC reservation in urban and rural local body elections to 42% from the existing 23% in March this year, the state government also promulgated an ordinance in July to provide for the 42% quota before passing a Government Order in September to grant BC reservation in local body polls.
Though these measures were intended to ensure that the proposed quotas – which breached the Supreme Court-mandated 50% ceiling – withstood legal challenge, the Telangana High Court has stayed the Government Order, while the Bills and ordinance continue to await assent from President Droupadi Murmu.
But as the state gets set for the three-tier panchayat elections scheduled to be held on December 11, 14 and 17, the Congress, BJP and Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) have “informally” backed a substantial number of BC candidates, several leaders of these parties said. Significantly, the panchayat polls in the state are not held on party symbols, which has facilitated the key contenders in this regard.
“If you look at the list of candidates we have supported, you will see that more than 42% are BCs,” a BJP insider said.
Several leaders of the Congress and the BRS also said their parties have similarly backed BC candidates. “We do not know the exact percentage of BCs we have supported in these elections. But we are sure that the community that has been favoured the most is the BC population,” a BRS leader said.
While Chief Minister Revanth Reddy had promised to offer 42% of the poll tickets to BCs, Congress leaders claimed that the party has extended support to more BC candidates this time than in any other election.
The decision to push for the BC representation comes at a time when its leadership in the state, cutting across party lines, has been vocal in its support for a 42% reservation. In a bandh called by the BC organisations on November 18, the Congress, BJP and BRS leaders were seen protesting together over this demand.
“The backward groups are a formidable force in the state, which has 56.33% BCs as per its caste survey,” a Congress leader said. Earlier this year, the state government had published the findings of its 2024 Social Educational Employment Economic Caste Survey.
However, the BJP has claimed that Muslims, who fall under the BC-E category in Telangana, have been a “key beneficiary” of these reservations at the panchayat level. “We cannot support this. But we are completely in favour of Hindu BC reservations,” a BJP leader said.
While the Congress is vigorously pushing for raising the BC reservation to 42% in the state, the BJP has remained non-committal on the issue.
“The Congress has tried every avenue to implement the enhanced BC reservation in Telangana. The party is strongly behind BC candidates,” state Congress president Mahesh Kumar Goud told The Indian Express.
State BJP chief N Ramachandra Rao also told The Indian Express, “We stand with the BC community. The BJP has always given prominence to the BCs in elections.”
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