The Revanth Reddy government has reportedly realized that it cannot implement 42% reservations for BCs. The Telangana cabinet meet on Monday has decided to shift the responsibility of implementing reservations to the BJP. To overcome public uproar, the state cabinet has decided to hold lobbying and dharnas with ministers and MPs under the leadership of CM Revanth Reddy on August 5, 6, and 7 in Delhi.
The cabinet has decided to stay in Delhi for these three days and meet President Draupadi Murmu, Prime Minister Modi, and Union ministers, as well as seek the support of the INDIA block leaders. The cabinet discussed the 42% reservation for BCs and the draft ordinance sent to the Governor.
The cabinet discussed how to move forward with the local body elections in the wake of the expiry of the deadline set by the High Court to finalize the reservations related to the Panchayat elections. It is reported that the cabinet discussed the fact that the two BC bills that have already been passed by the Assembly and are pending with the center and the draft ordinance are pending with the governor.
Moreover, the legal experts have suggested that the report given by the independent expert committee on caste census has legal implications and that it is impossible to provide 42% reservation to BCs without removing the 50% limit. They have reportedly mentioned cases of various states that were lost in the Supreme Court in the past for this.
As a result, the ministers have been struggling with the suggestions of experts on the future program. CM Revanth Reddy has commented stating that we have done as much as we can and what will we do if the center blocks it? Meanwhile, ministers Ponnam Prabhakar and Vakiti Srihari have strongly opposed CM Revanth Reddy’s suggestion to provide party-based reservations when it is not possible to implement reservations legally.
They made it clear that the local body elections should be held only after the issue of 42% reservations is resolved, and that the local body elections should be postponed until then. They mentioned that farmers are already hostile to the government due to fertilizer shortage, drought and other reasons.
Ministers Ponnam, Vakati Srihari and Tummala Nageswara Rao warned the Chief Minister that they will lose and will be defeated at the field level if they stubbornly conduct polls without BC reservations.