‘Muslims have to decide..’: Telangana Cong chief on quota row

Hyderabad: Telangana Congress president A Revanth Reddy on Wednesday slammed both the BJP-led centre and the BRS-led state government.

His remarks in Adilabad come after union home minister Amit Shah’s recent remarks in Chevella vowing to scrap the Muslim reservation in Telangana just like how the BJP-led state government did in the state of Karnataka.

“BRS cheated in the name of increasing Muslim reservation to 12 per cent from 4, BJP says they will remove even the existing one. It is the Congress who delivered on the Muslim reservation. Muslim brothers have to decide which side they want to go to,” he said.

Backward Muslims in Telangana enjoy 4 per cent reservation in education and jobs. This was introduced by the Congress government in undivided Andhra Pradesh about 15 years ago.

The state’s incumbent Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS)-led government has promised to increase the Muslim quota to 12 per cent. A resolution to this effect was passed in Telangana Assembly and sent to the Centre five years ago but the proposal has been rejected by the BJP-led government.

Revanth expressed confidence that Congress will form the government in 2024. He promised to fill over 2 lakh government job vacancies immediately once in power.