BC quota row: MRPS seeks all-party consensus to resolve legal roadblock

Hyderabad: The Madiga Reservation Porata Samithi (MRPS) on Thursday asked for an all-party meeting to build consensus on the BC quota and overcome the legal hurdle.

The state president of MRPS president Govindu Naresh Madiga, strongly reacted to the Telangana High Court’s interim stay on the State government’s order (GO 9) providing 42 per cent reservation for Backward Classes (BCs) in the upcoming local body elections.

MRPS asks for a unified front

The MRPS leadership called on the Chief Minister to take further steps, acknowledging his prior efforts in bringing the issue to the forefront.

“The CM must take further initiative to get opinions from all parties and achieve the 42 per cent reservation without any legal or constitutional complications,” an MRPS representative stated.

The organisation criticised political parties who allegedly celebrated the High Court’s stay order, stating such actions were unfortunate and counterproductive to the cause of justice for BCs. They also appealed to all political entities to support the BC reservation without treating it as an issue of ‘political rivalry or vote bank politics.’

In a major announcement, the MRPS declared it would launch a ‘Joint Struggle’ for the 42 per cent BC reservations, collaborating with SC and ST associations, including Dalit leader Addanki Dayakar and Tribal leader Bellaiah Naik. “Our fight will be extremely proactive in the future,” the MRPS stated.

High Court halts implementation of GO 9

The MRPS’s press meet followed the Telangana High Court bench’s decision to issue interim orders suspending the implementation of GO 9.

The High Court bench, after two days of extensive hearings, accepted the petitioners’ challenge to the ‘legality and proportionality of the enhanced BC quota.’

The court has ordered the government to file its counter-affidavit within four weeks, with the petitioners then given two weeks to file their replies. The case has been adjourned for six weeks for a detailed hearing.

Legal arguments

The Advocate General BS Prasad Sudarshan Reddy, representing the state, defended GO 9 by presenting data from the state’s comprehensive caste survey—the first since Independence.

He informed the court that the door-to-door enumeration revealed BCs constitute 57.6 per cent of the state’s population. In light of this, the government decided to allot 42 per cent reservation in local body elections, asserting that due process was followed.

However, advocate Ravi Varma, representing the petitioners, argued against the legal validity of the quota, even as he acknowledged that there is ‘no constitutional ceiling of 50 per cent on reservations.’

He noted that SCs, STs and BCs collectively account for around 85 per cent of Telangana’s population, yet the proposed quota brings the total reservations to only 67 per cent, leaving 33 per cent for others.