Revanth Reddy to camp in Delhi over Backward Classes bills

Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy will be camping in New Delhi next week to lead a delegation with his cabinet ministers, MPs, MLAs and MLCs to President Draupadi Murmu, in a bid to mount pressure on the Centre to approve the Bills sent by the state government to enhance reservation for the backward classes.

The Congress has invited the backward classes leaders from other parties in Telangana, including the BJP to join the delegation as well. According to a directive from the Telangana High Court, local body polls will have to be conducted in the state before 30 September and hence, the Congress government is keen to implement 42 percent reservation for the backward classes before elections take place.

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Chief minister Revanth Reddy will be camping in Delhi between 5 and 7 August, with MLAs, MLCs and his entire Cabinet to meet the President of India, along with INDI Alliance MPs, over implementing 42 per cent reservation for backward classes in local body polls.

According to the Congress government, the state Cabinet had sent the Bills to the governor in March after they were passed in the state Legislative Assembly. He has sent it to the President after seeking legal opinion.

Reddy wants to mount pressure on the BJP over these bills and hence will be visiting Delhi with his Cabinet, MLAs, MLCs, and BC organisations. This will be the second visit for the chief minister to New Delhi on the same issue. The party is seeking an appointment from the President of India.

The Congress is also inviting leaders from other political parties to join the delegation to the President. Congress minister Ponnam Prabhakar, who appealed to BCs to join them, also urged BJP leaders and cadres from the community to join them. The BJP has three Lok Sabha MPs, including a union minister and two Rajya Sabha MPs belonging to the BC community.

The state BJP has, however, slammed the ruling Congress for running a “deliberate and deceptive campaign” over the issue of enhancing reservation for BCs in local body polls.

Terming the Congress’s move as a vote-bank gimmick, Telangana BJP spokesperson NV Subhash said, “The BJP refuses to become a participant in this political farce. We will continue to expose the dual-faced politics of Congress. The Constitution is clear -no religion-based reservations are permitted. Yet the Congress is hell bent on violating that in the name of BC upliftment.”

Meanwhile, BRS MLC K Kavitha has questioned why the Congress government had not moved to court against the BJP government at the Centre, citing the case of Tamil Nadu, which had taken legal action after the governor withheld assent to key bills. She announced that she will hold a 72-hour-long hunger strike from 4 August, demanding enactment of the BC bills.