‘Insult to Telangana’: CM Reddy blames Centre for ‘preventing’ meet with Prez

New Delhi: The Telangana government on Friday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah of interfering to prevent a meeting with President Droupadi Murmu on Bills proposing 42 per cent reservation for Backward Classes in education, employment, and local body elections in the southern state.

Speaking after the entire Telangana Cabinet and party representatives waited in Delhi for three days for a presidential appointment, Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy termed the situation “deplorable, painful and an insult to the people of Telangana”.

“We sought an appointment with the president to request early approval of two Bills and an ordinance seeking implementation of 42 per cent reservation for Backward Classes.

“After we requested the appointment, Modi and Shah met the president. We don’t know what they discussed, but our party and Cabinet ministers have concluded that they interfered to ensure we don’t get an appointment,” Reddy told mediapersons.

The Telangana government has sent two Bills to President Murmu for approval -- the Telangana Backward Classes (Reservation of Seats in Rural and Urban Local Bodies) Bill, 2025, and The Telangana Backward Classes, Scheduled Castes, and Scheduled Tribes (Reservation of Seats in Educational Institutions and of Appointments or Posts in the Services Under the State) Bill, 2025, which were passed by the state legislature to increase reservation for Backward Classes to 42 per cent across education, employment, and local bodies.

The Cabinet also approved a draft ordinance amending the Telangana Panchayat Raj Act, 2018, to enforce this reservation in local bodies by temporarily overriding the 50 per cent reservation ceiling set by previous court rulings.