Telangana Issues GO Outlining Reservation Rules for Panchayat Polls
SC, ST, and BC quotas to be assigned using caste and population data; women’s reservations to be finalised through a lottery system.
Hyderabad: The government on Saturday issued fresh guidelines for determining reservations for the Backward Classes (BCs), Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) communities in the gram panchayat elections scheduled for December. The new order, GO 46, was issued to ensure that the combined reservation quota for these categories remained within the 50 per cent cap mandated by the Supreme Court.
GO 46 was issued in the wake of the BC Dedicated Commission submitting its report to the government on Thursday. The report is yet to be made public. The new order replaces GO 42, issued on September 26, which proposed 42 per cent reservations for BCs and is currently under legal challenge in the High Court.
The state has 545 mandals, 12,760 gram panchayats and 1,13,534 wards, with sarpanchs and ward membersto be elected directly. Reservations will be allotted sequentially — first to STs, followed by SCs, BCs and women.
Ward-level reservations for SC, ST and BC communities will be based on data from the SEEPC 2024 (Socio-Economic, Education, Employment, Political and Caste Survey) conducted by state government. For sarpanch posts, reservations for SC and ST community candidates will be based on the 2011 Census data on the SEEPC 2024 for BC community candidates.
Following amendments to the Telangana Panchayat Raj Act 2018, the reservation of seats and offices will now follow a rotation system starting from elections held under the amended Act. The upcoming polls will be treated as the second ordinary elections.
Gram panchayats formed after the 2019 elections will be treated as first ordinary elections and past reservations in those areas will not be factored.
Reservations will be assigned in descending order of population density, ensuring that areas with higher representation are prioritised. Panchayats with 100 per cent ST population will have all seats, including sarpanch posts, reserved exclusively for the community. Women’s reservations will be finalised first in panchayats or wards with lower seat counts before remaining categories are determined through a lottery system.
Reservation decisions for wards will be handled by mandal parishad development officers (MPDOs), while allocation for sarpanch posts will be overseen by revenue divisional officers (RDOs). Reservations that could not be implemented during the 2019 polls due to administrative delays will be carried forward unchanged.
The High Court hearing on the challenge to the 42 per cent BC quota is scheduled for November 24. The government will finalise the reservation matrix based on the court’s directions and present it to the Cabinet on November 25 for approval.
The State Election Commission reviewed the election preparedness with district collectors. The notification is likely to be issued on November 25 or 26, with polling expected to take place in three phases and conclude before December 20.
