Hyderabad: In the longer game plan of wooing the numerically strong Madiga community among the Scheduled Castes in Telangana, the calculated and calibrated moves of the BJP high command to support the agitation of Madiga Reservation Porata Samiti (MRPS) at a crucial movement had already helped the party to make bigger gains in the State in the recent Lok Sabha elections.
It may be noted that the BJP had openly supported the categorisation of SC reservations just before the recent Assembly elections in the state last year.
The party would go ahead to reap political dividends after the Supreme Court verdict favouring the categorisation of SC reservations. Immediately after the apex court verdict, the MRPS founder Manda Krishna Madiga thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for taking key initiatives in fulfilling their long-cherished dream.
Manda Krishna Madiga, who steered a long battle for the categorisation of Scheduled Castes reservations, had turned emotional before the media following the Apex Court verdict permitting sub-classification.
Expressing happiness over the verdict, Krishna Madiga said their 30-year agitation had brought justice. “The verdict of the Supreme Court saved justice in this country and it is a historical verdict”, he said.
On this occasion, he thanked Prime Minister Modi, former Vice-president M. Venkaiah Naidu, Union home minister Amit Shah and Union minister for coal and mines G. Kishan Reddy for extending the continued support for the demand. He specially thanked AP Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu for his support for SC categorisation.
Dedicating the Supreme Court verdict to those who died in the movement, Krishna Madiga underscored the need to take immediate steps for the sub-categorisation of SC reservations in two Telugu states and demanded the Telangana government to issue job notifications only after categorising the SC reservations. The MRPS will conduct a grand `Victory Meet’ and felicitate all those who supported their movement, he said.
BJP MP from Malkajgiri Etala Rajendar welcomed the Supreme Court verdict, describing it as a "historical judgment". The Congress and BRS have always cheated MRPS by giving false promises. It is proved now that the BJP alone can provide social justice in the country, he said.
BJP national ice-president and Mahbubnagar MP D.K. Aruna said the support extended by the BJP government at the Centre helped to realise the 30-year-long dream. PM Modi had given the assurance before the elections that the categorisation dream would soon be realised, she recollected.
Former deputy chief minister and Station Ghanpur MLA Kadiam Srihari said the backward communities among the SCs would benefit from the Supreme Court verdict and thanked Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy for extending the support.
