Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy stirred controversy on Friday, February 14, by urging the Backward Classes (BCs) of the state to “socially boycott” former Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR) and his family if they do not participate in the ongoing caste census.
“I am proposing a resolution to socially boycott Chandrashekar Rao, Taraka Rama Rao, and Harish Rao if they do not participate in the caste census and provide their details,” Revanth Reddy said. He claimed that KCR had lost the moral right to be part of Telangana society for refusing to take part in the census.
The Chief Minister made these remarks at Gandhi Bhavan while addressing a gathering, where he refuted allegations of data manipulation in the caste census. The Telangana government is set to conduct the second phase of the survey starting February 16, and Revanth Reddy urged people to ensure KCR and his family participate. “I urge the people to go to their houses, beat drums, and wake them up to submit their caste details,” he said.
He also challenged the Opposition parties—Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)—to prove their allegations of data fudging. Defending the integrity of the survey, Revanth Reddy accused both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and KCR of misleading the Backward Classes.
The CM further alleged that Modi harbours an “anti-BC mindset” and claimed that he was not originally from a BC community but had “legally converted” into one by including his caste in the BC category after becoming Gujarat’s Chief Minister.
“Modi may carry a BC certificate, but his mindset is anti-BC. If he is truly a BC Prime Minister, I challenge him to conduct a caste census along with the general census in the entire country,” Revanth Reddy said.
He also accused the BJP of attempting to discredit the Telangana government’s caste survey to avoid pressure on the Modi government to conduct a similar census nationwide and amend the Constitution to enhance BC reservations.
Revanth Reddy questioned how the BRS and BJP could dismiss the survey as inaccurate when no official caste statistics existed before the Congress-led government’s initiative.
“Let the Modi government conduct a BC census in Telangana along with the general census and compare their findings with our survey. I challenge those trying to mislead BCs to find a single mistake in our data,” he said.
The Chief Minister claimed that 96.9% of Telangana’s population had voluntarily provided their details in the first phase of the survey. “Now, we have started a second round to give an opportunity to the remaining 3.1%,” he added.
He claimed that KCR’s family are avoiding the census because the BCs will realise the political representation of their community.
Revanth Reddy further criticized the Integrated Household Survey (IHS) under the previous BRS government, questioning how it classified SCs into 82 sub-castes when Telangana officially recognizes only 59. He pointed out that IHS, which was conducted in a single day, lacked legal validity.