Revanth Reddy bats for Bandaru Dattatreya as next vice president

Slamming the BJP for ‘neglecting’ the backward classes (BC), Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy on Wednesday demanded that the post of vice president should go to someone from Telangana to atone for the saffron party’s past sins of overlooking leaders from the southern state.

He even recommended the name of former Haryana governor Bandaru Dattatreya for the post of vice-president, claiming that a Telugu-speaking person deserves the post.

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Currently, Reddy is in the national capital to meet Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi and other MPs seeking their support to raise the issue of BC quota and mount political pressure on the Centre to approve the Bills and enact them.

Describing the resignation of Jagdeep Dhankar as “unfortunate,” Reddy demanded that the post of vice president should go to a Telugu-speaking person.

He said, “The vice president’s post should be given to a person from Telangana. Last time, Venkaiah Naidu was the vice-president, but they did not do justice to him when it came to the post of president. They did a ghar wapsi to a Telugu-speaking person. Compensate by making Bandaru Dattatreya vice president since his tenure as the governor of Haryana has ended.”

An RSS man, Dattatreya was termed as “Ajatashatru” by the chief minister a few days back.

Reddy, in his customary flippant style, alleged that the BJP did injustice to all its leaders hailing from the backward classes, replacing them with leaders from forward castes.

“When Bandaru Dattatreya was in the Union Cabinet, they took away his ministership and gave it to G Kishan Reddy. Bandi Sanjay Kumar was the BJP state president, but now they have made a Brahmin, N Ramchander Rao, the president. NDA has done this to all OBC leaders in South, particularly in Telangana. Compensate by making Dattatreya the vice president, and then their sins will be partially forgiven,” said Reddy.

He also slammed the Telangana BJP leaders who oppose 42 per cent reservation for BCs on the grounds that it includes Muslims.

“If you have courage, remove reservations for Muslims from the OBC quota in Gujarat, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, which are BJP-ruled states. Don’t distract from the real issues of the BC reservation,” thundered Reddy, claiming this was not an instance of reservation based on religion.

He added that the election in 2029 was going to be the litmus test for the BC reservation.

“The Congress government in Telangana completed conducting the caste census and then brought two bills, which were passed in the Legislative Assembly, providing a 42 percent quota for the Backward Classes.

“However, the Centre is yet to give its nod. Reddy then brought an ordinance to implement a 42 percent reservation to the BCs in local polls, but the governor’s assent is still awaited. The state government will have to hold local polls in the state by 30 September, following the direction of Telangana High Court,” he added.