Congress BC aspirants uneasy over delay in 42 percent reservations ahead of municipal polls

Congress BC aspirants in Telangana expressed concern over the delay in announcing 42 percent reservations for the community in municipal polls. Leaders said the promise appeared sidelined, adding that ticket allocation must ensure winnable seats for BC candidates

Hyderabad: As arrangements for the conduct of municipal elections gather pace, Congress BC aspirants hoping to contest are growing increasingly anxious over the absence of any announcement on 42 percent reservations for the community from the party leadership.

Last week, the Telangana Congress held its executive meeting at Gandhi Bhavan, which was attended by Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy, AICC in charge Meenakshi Natarajan, TPCC president Mahesh Kumar Goud and other Cabinet Ministers.

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Interestingly, while there was extensive discussion on the MGNREGA name issue, there was hardly any talk on 42 percent reservations for BCs in the municipal elections. Going by the party leadership’s approach, the 42 percent reservation for BCs appeared to have been deliberately ignored, a senior BC leader at Gandhi Bhavan said.

Instructions were also issued to collect six applications from each ward or division from aspirants. However, there was no clarity or guidelines on BC aspirants’ applications, the leader said, adding that the promise seemed to have been pushed into cold storage.

The party had promised to implement 42 percent reservations for BCs in local body elections, besides contracts and employment. BC organisations had earlier slammed the Congress government for failing to extend 42 percent reservations to the community in the Gram Panchayat elections.

After suffering a setback in the Supreme Court on extending statutory reservations, the Congress party is now attempting to regain the confidence of the community. It had decided to extend party-based 42 percent reservations, but the matter was not being discussed or taken up with party leaders at the district and mandal levels. “The community cannot be taken for granted,” another leader observed.

Referring to ticket allocations during the Assembly elections, particularly in the Old City and other regions, BC leaders said they were keen to raise the issue seriously with the party leadership.

“Mere allocation of tickets for the sake of ensuring 42 reservations will not suffice. The party needs to allot tickets to BC aspirants where the probability to win the elections is high,” the leader insisted.