The government hopes that the Governor may give his assent immediately, and, in that case, it is all set to sound the bugle for the local body polls.
Published Jul 17, 2025 | 12:36 PM ⚊ Updated Jul 17, 2025 | 12:36 PM
Telangana Governor Jishnu Dev Varma.
Synopsis: The Congress-led government in Telangana is awaiting the assent from Governor Jishnu Dev Varma for the draft ordinance amending the Telangana Panchayat Raj Act. It is amending the Act by invoking the provision that allows the state to alter reservations through its executive authority.
The Congress-led government in Telangana is anxiously awaiting the assent from Governor Jishnu Dev Varma for the draft ordinance amending the Telangana Panchayat Raj Act, 2018. The bill was sent to him on Wednesday, 16 July, to provide a 42 percent reservation for backward class (BC) communities in the upcoming local body elections.
The government hopes that the Governor may give his assent immediately, and, in that case, it is all set to sound the bugle for the local body polls. The Panchayat Raj department has already issued an order notifying that there are 566 Zilla Parishad Territorial Constituencies (ZPTCs), 5,773 Mandal Parishad Territorial Constituencies (MPTCs), and 12,778 panchayats comprising 1,12,694 wards.
The department has also directed the district collectors to prepare for the elections. The state government is hurrying to complete the election process before 30 September, as mandated by the High Court of Telangana.
After the Telangana High Court issued its order on conducting elections for local bodies, the state cabinet, chaired by Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy, decided to issue an ordinance amending the Panchayat Raj Act, enhancing reservations for BCs to 42 percent. The state government, thereupon, did not lose much time and rushed the draft ordinance to the Governor for his assent.
The Congress government is amending the Act by invoking the provision that allows the state to alter reservations through its executive authority. Rule 6 of Section 343-D of the Act states that “nothing shall prevent the legislature of a state from making any provision for the reservation of seats in any panchayat or offices of chairpersons of panchayats at any level in favour of backward classes.”
The government does not want to lose any time once the assent is given to the draft ordinance and wants to give the green signal to the State Election Commission to start the proceedings for the conduct of the election.
Once this is done, Congress believes the courts may not interfere. The courts usually do not interfere once the election process begins. The government is keen on holding the elections as early as next month.
According to sources, Congress wants to conduct the ZPTCs and MPTCs elections first, which are party-based, followed by panchayat elections. The party wants to ensure that ZPs and MPs are in place by 15 August so that their chairpersons can hoist the national flag on Independence Day at their respective offices.
The government intends to amend the Act and increase the reservations since the existing Act provides only 23 percent reservations for BCs. The amendment seeks to eliminate the specific mention of the percentage of quota in the Act so that the government would have the leeway to increase the quota to 42 percent.
The party is rushing the process because it is afraid that someone might throw a spanner by moving courts, arguing that if the BC quota is raised to 42 percent, the total reservations would exceed 50 percent, which the Supreme Court in the Indra Sawhney vs. Union of India (1992) case had proscribed.
The Telangana government, since it is led by Congress, also has an alternate plan in case the Governor does not give consent to the draft ordinance on the grounds that the Assembly has already passed bills hiking 42 percent reservations for BCs in local bodies, educational institutions, and employment.
The alternative plan is that, in case the Governor shoots down the draft ordinance or the draft ordinance does not stand up to legal scrutiny, Congress wants to implement a 42 percent reservation for BCs in the allotment of tickets.
Even though it would not be mandatory, the party wants to do it to uphold the commitment it made to the BCs in the Kamareddy Declaration on the eve of the last Assembly elections.
After the 10 July Cabinet meeting, Information and Public Relations Minister Ponguleti Srinivasa Reddy had said that the decision to amend the Panchayat Raj Act, 2018, was taken as the Union government was sitting on the bills that the Assembly had passed, providing 42 percent reservations for BCs in local bodies, education, and employment.
The two bills awaiting inclusion in the IXth Schedule of the Indian Constitution are: Telangana Backward Classes, Scheduled Castes, and Scheduled Tribes (Reservation of Seats in Educational Institutions and of Appointments or Posts in Services under the State) Bill, 2025, and the Telangana Backward Classes (Reservation of Seats in Rural and Urban Local Bodies) Bill, 2025.
Both bills have received the assent of the Governor before they were sent to the Union government.
(Edited by Muhammed Fazil.)
