TS to Hike BC Quota, Defers Village Polls

Hyderabad: Elections to 23,973-gram panchayats, whose five-year tenure will end on January 31, 2024, are likely to be deferred by at least six months, with the Congress government mulling changes to the Panchayat Raj Act, 2018 to enhance reservations for Backward Classes, official sources said.

The likely deferment comes against a backdrop of the Congress, in its election manifesto for the Assembly polls, promising to enhance reservations for BCs from 23 per cent to 42 per cent, in local bodies. It also promised to provide sub-categorisation in BC reservations in local bodies.

The process to amend the Acts for local bodies would take a few months and it would not be possible to hold the gram panchayat polls in January 2024 as scheduled, sources said.

The previous BRS government enacted new laws — Panchayat Raj Act in 2018 and Municipalities Act in 2019 — with elections held as per the new laws, in January 2019 for panchayats, in June 2019 for Zilla and mandal parishads, and in January 2020 for municipal bodies.

Sources said that to amend these Acts to enhance BC reservations, the government has to survey the social and economic conditions of BCs and the political representation of BCs in local bodies. It would take at least six months to complete this process, sources said.

The process involved passage of amendments to the Acts in the Legislative Assembly and Council House sessions, with the earliest sitting the Monsoon session in July-August 2024, as the one in March 2024 would exclusively be for the State Annual Budget.