Telangana: Congress to pitch for BC, SC quota

Hyderabad: Setting the party agenda for the 2019 elections, senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh on Thursday criticised the Telangana government for selectively increasing reservation quota for Muslims and Scheduled Tribes and not hiking the quota for Backward Classes and Scheduled Castes.

Mr Singh was referring to a recent law piloted by Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao in the State Legislature to increase reservations for backward Muslims and Scheduled Tribes to 12 per cent and 10 per cent respectively.

Though the Congress supported the Bill to hike reservation for Muslims and STs in the Assembly, Mr Singh said the omission of BCs and SCs only shows that the TRS government is anti-Dalit and anti- backward.He was addressing a public meeting at Tandur in Vikarabad district on Thursday.

Calling the increase in quota as move aimed at the 2019 elections, Telangana PCC president Uttam Kumar Reddy criticised the Chief Minister for increasing the quota after spending the first three years in power in hibernation,

Setting the agenda for the 2019 elections, Mr Reddy promised that after the Congress, if voted back to power in the state in 2019, would waive farmer loans upto '2 lakh in one go.

Drawing parallels between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Chandrasekhar Rao, the Leader of the Congress in Lok Sabha Mallikharjuna Kharge said both the leaders are make promises, but fail to implement them.

He said while Mr Modi remembers Ambedkar only on his birthdays, Mr Rao did not have time to garland an Ambedkar statue. This, he said, shows are anti-Dalit and anti-downtrodden people.“If Mr Modi is sincere about Ambedkar why is that BJP and RSS offices do not have a single Ambedkar photo?,” he asked.