Hyderabad: On Thursday, August 7, Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy charged that the Central government, led by the Bharatiya Janata Party, was purposefully impeding the state’s attempts to enact increased reservations for the Backward Classes (BCs).
The Telangana Cabinet has been camped out in the capital since August 5th, waiting for an appointment with President Droupadi Murmu, but to no effect, Reddy claimed, capping a three-day protest in New Delhi.
Ten days prior, we had requested an appointment. However, we were refused access to the President by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP. He blamed the BJP for the delay in approving two important quota bills, saying, “This isn’t just unfortunate — it’s an insult to the people of Telangana.”
A key pledge stated in the Congress’s 2023 Kamareddy Declaration, the Telangana government has approved two bills and an ordinance calling for 42% reservations for BCs in local bodies, employment, and education. Revanth emphasized that social and economic backwardness, not religion, was the only reason for the reservation.
The bills were sent to the president by the state governor for her approval.
“The BJP is deceiving the country.”
“That’s false propaganda,” he added, refuting the BJP’s assertion that the Congress was attempting to grant reservations for Muslims under the OBC category. The country is being misled by the BJP. The Bills contain no clauses that provide quotas based on religion.
He gave examples of how backward Muslim communities in BJP-ruled regions like Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Uttar Pradesh are already classified as OBC. He noted that even Modi acknowledged in an interview that OBC quotas are helping Muslims from underprivileged backgrounds.
Additionally, Revanth attacked Union Ministers G Kishan Reddy and Bandi Sanjay Kumar, raising doubts about whether their protests stemmed from political or legal expertise. He did not spare the BRS either, charging it of supporting the BJP and damaging BC rights in a “Shikhandi” manner. Their MPs did not attend our demonstration. They opted to make fun of us rather than stand by us,” he claimed.
Aiming for “Moral Implementation,” Congress
Revanth announced a voluntary 42% reserve for BCs in local body election tickets as an alternative to the legal route, which was blocked because the bills were requiring presidential approval and the ordinance was still pending with the governor.
“There are legal restrictions on us. The High Court mandated that elections for local bodies be held before September 30, 2025. The courts will halt a Government Order (GO) if it exceeds the 50% quota cap, he clarified. Rather, the Congress will set an example by giving BC candidates 42% of its party tickets and encouraging other parties to do the same. He said, “They will be exposed in front of the BC community if they don’t.”
To nationalize the issue, Maha Dharna
On the last day of the party’s Delhi agitation, which included a well-publicized Maha Dharna at Jantar Mantar on August 6, the chief minister made these statements. Like-minded regional leaders participated in the demonstration, which was intended to portray the BJP as the main barrier to BC empowerment.
Mallikarjun Kharge, the president of the AICC, met with Revanth and other Telangana Congress leaders to inform him of the developments. Despite not being present at the demonstration, prominent figures like Rahul Gandhi and Kharge expressed their support on social media. However, their absence sparked questions about party cooperation.
Union Minister Kishan Reddy called the Congress’s Delhi mission a “political drama” designed to deflect criticism of the government’s shortcomings. Under the pretense of a 42% BC reservation, he charged the party with trying to smuggle in a 10% quota for Muslims.
Reddy stated that if the purported “religion-based quota” was eliminated, the BJP would back the legislation. Additionally, the BJP has claimed that the Congress is using identity politics to try to turn around its declining political fortunes.
The Congress seems to be depending on political pressure and moral optics to win over the public as the local body elections approach and the quota’s legal clearance is still pending. In Telangana, BCs make up a sizable portion of the vote, and the Congress wants to win over this important group by portraying the BJP and BRS as anti-BC.
In the 2023 Assembly elections, Congress used the Kamareddy Declaration as its trump card, signaling a dramatic departure from the BRS’s ten-year hegemony. The party’s ability to carry out its 42% reservation vow on the ground will determine whether this Delhi campaign results in electoral gains.
The fight for BC reserves appears to be far from over as Revanth and his group get ready to return to Hyderabad. The matter is expected to continue to be a political hot spot in Telangana in the lead-up to the local body elections in 2025, since the BJP has launched a counteroffensive and the laws’ fate is still up in the air.
