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Hundreds of Telangana Congress leaders and workers left for New Delhi by a special train on the morning of Monday, August 4, to demand approval for 42% reservation for Backward Classes (BCs). Senior leaders, including state Congress president B Mahesh Kumar Goud and All India Congress Committee (AICC) state in-charge Meenakshi Natarajan, are accompanying the Congress workers.
A delegation of BC leaders is also part of the group that will stage a dharna seeking Presidential assent for the two important Bills passed by the Telangana Assembly in March this year to enhance BC reservations in education, government employment, and local governance to 42%. The Bills were introduced following the caste survey or the Social Education Employment Economic Political Caste (SEEEPC) Survey, carried out towards the end of 2024.
Chief Minister Revanth Reddy will lead the dharna at Jantar Mantar on August 6. Congress has also planned a series of protests on the issue in Delhi from August 5 to 7. Revanth is also expected to meet President Droupadi Murmu with a representation seeking assent for the bills.
The two bills—‘Telangana Backward Classes, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Reservation of Seats in Educational Institutions and of Appointments for Posts in Services under the State) Bill, 2025’ and ‘Telangana Backward Classes (Reservation of Seats in Rural and Urban Local Bodies) Bill, 2025’—propose 42% reservations for BCs and had received unanimous support in the Assembly from all political parties, including the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (AIMIM), and the Communist Party of India (CPI).
However, the bills have not received Presidential assent even three months after they were forwarded by the Telangana Governor.
After the Telangana High Court in June directed the state government to conduct local body elections in three months after finalising the reservations by the end of July, the state Cabinet decided to issue an ordinance to raise BC reservation in local bodies to 42%. Recently, on July 29, the ordinance too, was sent to the President for her assent.
The Telangana Congress has reportedly booked a special train for the delegation of leaders, according to The Times of India, which left on the morning of August 4 from the Cherlapally railway station. The delegation comprises over a thousand party leaders and workers, most of them from BC communities. They will reportedly be accommodated in hotels in Delhi’s Paharganj.
CM Revanth and Congress MLAs and MLCs are expected to leave for Delhi after the Cabinet meeting to be held on the evening of August 4, which will discuss the Ghose commission report on alleged irregularities in the Kaleshwaram irrigation project.
Meenakshi Natarjan and Mahesh Kumar Goud recently launched a ‘janahita padyatra’ in Pargi constituency in Telangana’s Vikarabad district, where they sought people’s support for 42% reservation to Backward Classes ahead of the upcoming local body elections.
The first phase of the padyatra continued till August 4. It will resume after the return of Congress leaders from Delhi.