On 3 November, the Telangana High Court reinforced this position and nudged the government to announce the election schedule by 24 November.
Published Nov 17, 2025 | 8:00 AM ⚊ Updated Nov 17, 2025 | 8:00 AM
Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy. Credit: x.com/revanth_anumula
Synopsis: Telangana Cabinet will meet on 17 November to finalise local body election roadmap amid High Court stay on 42% BC quota. Congress will also consider party-wise reservations, approve pioneering Gig Workers Welfare Bill 2025, and give final nod to Telangana Rising Global Summit and Vision-2047 launch marking two years of Revanth Reddy’s Congress government.
As Telangana government completes two eventful years and the ruling Congress basks in the afterglow of its stunning triumph in the Jubilee Hills by-election, the state Cabinet is gearing up for a high-stakes meeting on Monday, 17 November, at the Telangana Secretariat.
With Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy in the chair, the agenda of the cabinet is packed to the rafters. The meeting will pore over the long-delayed roadmap for local body elections, a political hot potato, that has been tangled in legal knots over Backward Classes (BC) reservations.
The meeting will also weigh the sensitive proposal of offering party-wise reservations, fine-tune preparations for the high-profile Telangana Rising Global Summit–2025, and clear the state’s pioneering Gig and Platform Workers (Registration, Social Security & Welfare) Bill, 2025.
All eyes are on the discussion around local body elections. The Chief Minister had already signalled on 14 November that the Cabinet would take a call on the “roadmap” for the long-pending polls. The Cabinet is expected to brainstorm ways to steer through the legal maze while trying to be faithful to the government’s social justice plank.
The issue has been hanging fire ever since the Telangana High Court, on 9 October, stayed GO Ms. No. 9 — issued on 26 September, 2025 — which had raised BC reservations from 25 percent to 42 percent in rural and urban local bodies.
Congress, sticking to its 2023 manifesto promise, had sought to do right by BCs, who make up 56.33 percent of the state’s population as per the 2024 caste survey (46.25 percent non-Muslim BCs and 10.08 percent Muslim BCs).
But this move pushed the total quota — 15 percent SCs, 10 percent STs, 42 percent BCs — to a staggering 67 percent, clearly breaching the Supreme Court’s 50 percent cap laid down in the Indra Sawhney (1992) and Vikas Kishan Rao Gawali (2021) verdicts.
A Division Bench of Chief Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh and Justice G.M. Mohiuddin advised the State Election Commission to conduct elections under the old reservation pattern, treating excess seats as unreserved.
On 3 November, the Telangana High Court reinforced this position and nudged the government to announce the election schedule by 24 November.
The Cabinet may consider politically loaded proposal of announcing party-wise BC reservations — an unofficial way of extending the 42 percent BC representation as it cannot be legally enforced now with the High Court putting its foot firmly down. This is a slippery slope, and Monday’s meeting may shed light on how far the government is willing to push the envelope.
Preparations for the Telangana Rising Global Summit–2025, slated for 8 and 9 December in Hyderabad, will get a final push. At a review meeting on 14 November, Revanth Reddy sought “foolproof” arrangements for the two-day showpiece that coincides with the government’s second anniversary celebrations.
8 December will be all about showcasing governance achievements, while 9 December will see the grand release of the ‘Telangana Rising–2047’ Vision Document — a blueprint aimed at turbocharging the state’s growth.
The Chief Minister told officials that the document must spell out the government’s priorities for global investors. Departments have been told to prepare presentations by month-end. Invitations to foreign delegates, airtight security arrangements, and inter-departmental coordination are on the to-do list. Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka has been asked to keep a hawk’s eye on the preparations.
The Cabinet is also expected to take up the Gig and Platform Workers (Registration, Social Security & Welfare) Bill, 2025, an ambitious welfare framework for nearly 4.5 lakh workers in the ride-hailing, delivery, and home-services sectors. Labour Minister G Vivek Venkataswamy stated on 6 November that the Bill — strengthened after 67 public suggestions — is ready for the Cabinet’s nod.
The law proposes mandatory registration of all gig workers with a unique ID linked to a Welfare Board, social security benefits funded through a 1–2 percent cess on platform companies, minimum wage guarantees, algorithmic transparency, and expanded accident insurance building on the existing ₹5 lakh cover introduced in 2023.
(Edited by Amit Vasudev)
