Telangana Cabinet Hikes BC Quota To 42% In Local Polls

Hyderabad:In a landmark decision, the Telangana Cabinet on Thursday approved 42 per cent reservation for the Backward Classes (BCs) communities in the upcoming local body elections. The Cabinet meeting, chaired by Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy at the Secretariat, decided to issue an ordinance to amend the Telangana Panchayat Raj Act, 2018, to facilitate the implementation of enhanced reservation for BCs in the local bodies.

Briefing mediapersons about the Cabinet decisions, information and public relations minister Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy said the decision fulfilled a major promise made by the Congress government. He recalled that the promise of enhancing BC reservation in local bodies was a key aspect of the Congress's electoral agenda, backed by AICC leaders Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge during the BC Declaration at Kamareddy and the public meeting in Sangareddy during the 2023 Assembly elections.

Srinivas Reddy said that the Congress government had fulfilled its commitment to conducting a caste census within one year of coming to power. The census revealed that 56.33 per cent of Telangana's population, amounting to approximately 2.09 crore people, belonged to the Backward Classes communities, including 10.08 per cent BC Muslims.

Based on these findings, the state government got the Assembly to pass a legislation in March 2025 for extending the 42 per cent reservation for BCs, and sent it to the Centre for getting Parliamentary approval. Parliament has not acted on the Telangana Assembly’s request.

In March, the Telangana government introduced two Bills in the Legislative Assembly, aiming at granting 42 per cent reservation for BCs in local body elections, educational institutions and government employment. Both bills were passed in the Assembly on the same day.

Adding to the urgency, the Telangana High Court recently directed the state government to finalise the reservation quota for local body elections by the end of July. In light of this directive, the Cabinet decided to move forward with the implementation of the enhanced BC quota in local body elections.

The state government has set up a dedicated BC Commission in compliance with the Supreme Court directives and conducted a caste census under the supervision of the state planning department, which provided the empirical data for the legislation.

The Cabinet has now resolved to proceed with the necessary actions to implement the reservation policy based on this data.

As per the Cabinet resolution, village panchayat sarpanches and mandal parishad territorial constituencies (MPTCs) will be treated as units at the mandal level. Mandal praja parishad presidents (MPPs) and zilla parishad territorial constituencies (ZPTCs) will be considered at the district level, while zilla parishad chairpersons will be recognised as a state-level unit.