The Revanth Reddy government is preparing to postpone the local body elections again, for which the schedule is supposed to be announced in a week. For the last one year, the government has been hesitating to conduct the polls and again it is taking shelter for postponement with conduction of caste census once again.
Deputy Chief Minister Bhatti Vikramarka has made it clear that 42 percent reservation will be given to BCs in the local elections. However, a bill will have to be introduced in the Assembly after the cabinet approval in March to increase the BC reservations. He said that the government is ready to introduce the BC bill during the state budget session to be held in March.
However, reservations will not become legal just by passing the bill in the Assembly. For that, the law made by the state legislature will have to be approved in Parliament. Moreover, the central budget session is already underway. By the end of the state assembly session, the parliament sessions will be adjourned indefinitely.
Parliament will meet again during the monsoon session. Those sessions will be held after a gap of six months, between July and September. If the BC reservation increase bill passed by the Telangana Assembly is to get parliamentary approval, it will have to wait until then.
In the context of the issue of BC reservation increase being linked to many such technical issues, it seems that the chances of local body elections being held now are very low. It is learnt that Chief Minister Revanth Reddy came to discuss this issue in the review meeting.
Though postponement of panchayat polls will deprive local bodies from receiving central funds, the state government is not going ahead in this regard. It is stating that the state government is ready for it as there are technical reasons associated with the approval of reservations.
When this issue was brought to the notice of Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka at the press conference, he also confirmed it. He revealed that the people are ready to bear the financial loss for some time.
Considering all these reasons, even though the term of the local body representatives has already been completed and a year has passed, there are circumstances where it is necessary to wait for at least another six months.
The government has already completed the preparations to hold local body elections in the state. Proposals to this extent have been sent to the State Election Commission. As the SEC prepares to conduct the elections, the issue of caste census and 42 percent reservation for BCs has come to the fore again.
