Hyderabad: Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy, Deputy Chief Minister Bhatti Vikramarka, and several BC ministers and MLAs will head to New Delhi on Tuesday. They are going to take part in a protest organized by the All-India Congress Committee (AICC).
The protest is being held to urge the Central government to conduct a caste census and to implement 42 percent reservations for Backward Classes (BCs). The Telangana leaders also plan to meet Union Ministers to push for these demands.
Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi, along with other AICC leaders—especially those from the BC community—will join the protest. Rahul Gandhi has been strongly supporting a caste-based census. He believes it will help understand how wealth is shared in the country and how fairly people from OBC, Dalit, and working-class backgrounds are represented in fields like government jobs, courts, and the media.
Recently, Telangana became the first state to introduce reservations based on the results of a caste survey. The State Legislative Assembly passed a bill increasing reservations for BCs to 42 percent in government jobs, schools, and local elections.
The new bill proposes 42 percent reservations for BCs, 18 percent for Scheduled Castes (SCs), and 10 percent for Scheduled Tribes (STs). This is up from the previous quotas of 29 percent for BCs, 15 percent for SCs, and 6 percent for STs. The bill has been sent to the Central government for approval.
Telangana is the third state in India, after Bihar and Karnataka, to carry out a caste survey for demographic purposes. In 2023, the Bihar Assembly had also passed a bill increasing reservations to 65 percent for various groups. However, the Patna High Court later rejected it, saying it was unconstitutional.
