Amaravati, Oct 9 (IANS) YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) leaders and former Ministers Chelluboyina Venugopala Krishna and Dharmana Prasada Rao said on Friday that the Supreme Court judgment on Backward Class (BC) reservations exposed the N. Chandrababu Naidu-led Andhra Pradesh government’s betrayal of BCs by failing to provide 34 per cent reservation to them in local body elections.
They said Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu had promised 34 per cent reservation in the election manifesto despite being fully aware of the legal ceiling on reservations, but failed to complete the statutory and constitutional process required to protect the quota.
Venugopala Krishna said the state government deliberately wasted time instead of creating a legally sustainable framework.
He questioned why Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu, despite being a key ally in the NDA government at the Centre, had not raised the issue strongly with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
“If special efforts could be made in Parliament to provide legal backing to Amaravati, why was the same commitment not shown for 34 per cent BC reservation?” he asked.
He said that sending BC Ministers to Delhi to consult lawyers was not enough and that the state government should have exerted political pressure on the Centre for constitutional protection.
He also rejected the state government’s proposal to compensate BCs through party-level seat allocation, saying political tickets and statutory reservations were fundamentally different.
He demanded that the state government complete the required legal process and conduct local body elections with 34 per cent BC reservation as promised.
Dharmana Prasada Rao said the state government knew that aggregate reservations could not ordinarily cross the 50 per cent ceiling, yet issued orders that failed judicial scrutiny.
He demanded an unconditional apology to BCs and called for a comprehensive empirical survey through a legally constituted commission rather than ad-hoc exercises or household data collection.
Both leaders said that YSRCP Chief and former Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy had demonstrated political commitment to BC representation even when statutory reservation faced judicial limitations.
During the YSRCP government, BCs received four of 11 Rajya Sabha positions, 28 of 58 MLC positions, six of 13 Zilla Parishad Chairperson posts, nine of 13 Mayor posts, 44 of 84 Municipal Chairperson posts, 239 of 636 Mandal Praja Parishad President posts and 227 of 639 Zilla Parishad Territorial Constituency positions.
They said the Telugu Desam Party-led coalition government must stop blaming YSRCP for the loss of BC opportunities and instead explain why it failed to secure a legally sustainable 34 per cent quota.
YSRCP would continue its fight until BCs receive statutory reservation and fair political representation, they added.
–IANS
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