BC Candidates to Get 24,000 More Seats in Local Body Polls

Hyderabad: The Backward Classes (BCs) community is poised to benefit substantially from the government’s decision to implement 42 per cent reservations in the local bodies elections, opening up an estimated 24,000 additional posts across gram panchayats, mandal parishads and zilla parishads, and taking the total to nearly 55,000.

This is nearly double of what the community got in the 2019 local body elections held under the BRS regime with 23 per cent reservations.

Although the government has not officially announced seat-wise reservation allocations, collectors of all districts have already submitted the lists to the panchayat raj department in sealed covers, which were handed over to the Telangana State Election Commission (TGSEC) on Sunday.

Official sources said the enhanced reservations translate into an additional 23,973 posts for BCs across rural local bodies. These include sarpanches and ward members in gram panchayats, zilla parishad (ZP) chairpersons and ZP territorial committee (ZPTC) members, as well as mandal parishad presidents (MPPs) and MPTCs.

In the 2013 elections, BCs had enjoyed 33 per cent reservations but the BRS government reduced it to 23 per cent to comply with the 50 per cent ceiling set by the Supreme Court. This reduction cost BCs 1,133 sarpanch posts, 11,182 ward member posts, 338 urban ward member posts, 577 MPTC posts, 57 MPP posts, 57 ZPTC posts and three ZP chairperson posts.

The Congress, which had promised enhanced reservations for BCs in its 2023 Assembly election manifesto, conducted a caste census and appointed a Dedicated BC Commission to assess their population and backwardness in local bodies. Based on its recommendations, the government passed a bill in March 2025 providing 42 per cent reservations and another in August 2025 amending the BRS-era Panchayat Raj Act to lift the overall 50 per cent limit. Both bills are pending with the Governor and President Droupadi Murmu.

As an interim measure, the government issued GO.9 on September 26 to implement the 42 per cent BC quota. However, a petition challenging the GO was filed in the Telangana High Court on September 27. The case is scheduled for a hearing on October 8, when the court will decide the fate of the enhanced BC quota.