Congress Takes Out Huge Rally For 12% Muslim Quota

Announcing that the Congress would conduct a door-to-door campaign to expose the failure of the TRS government in implementing its promised 12% reservation in jobs and education, Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president N Uttam Kumar Reddy warned CM K Chandrashekar Rao against deceiving the Muslim community.

Reddy, along with AICC Telangana In-Charge Secretary R C Kuntia and other senior leaders, participated in the "Walk For 12% Muslim Reservation" from Charminar to Gandhi Bhavan on Saturday.

The walk was organised by the GHCC Minorities Department Chairman Shaik Abdullah Sohail and other leaders including TPCC Minorities Department Chairman Khaja Fakhruddin, TPCC spokesperson Syed Nizamuddin and ex-corporator Mohd Ghouse.

CLP leader K Jana Reddy, ex-PCC President Ponnala Lakshmaiah, Kodad MLA N Padmavathi, ex-union minister Sarve Satyanaranaya, TPCC Treasurer Gudur Narayana Reddy, ex-minister Danam Nagender, ex-MP M Anjan Kumar Yadav, Youth Congress President Anil Kumar Yadav, Mahila Congress President Nerella Sharada and other Congress leaders also participated in the padayatra.

Siasat Urdu daily news editor Amer Ali Khan, MBT leader Amjed Ullah Khan, Tahreek Muslim Shabban President Mohammed Mushtaq Mallik, Moulana Rafeeq of Popular Front and other eminent personalities representing different organisations also participated in the walk to express their solidarity with and support for the cause of 12% reservation for Muslims.

Thousands of Congress workers, too, participated in the walk, raising slogans against the Chief Minister. They carried placards asking KCR to either fulfil the promise or quit his post.

The padayatra culminated in a meeting at Prakasam Hall where Congress leaders paid rich tributes to freedom fighter and the country's first education minister Moulana Abul Kalam Azad on his 139th birth anniversary.

Addressing the meeting, Reddy enjoined the Congress workers to conduct a door-to-door campaign to explain to the people how KCR had cheated the Muslims on the 12% quota issue.

He said that although the Muslim community had traditionally supported the Congress, in the 2014 elections they had backed the TRS hoping that KCR would increase the quota for them in jobs and education from the present 4% to 12%. But as against his promise of giving 12% reservation in four months after coming to power, the Chief Minister had done nothing even in 40 months. After dragging his feet over the issue for three-and-a-half years on one pretext or the other, KCR had now washed off his hands by saying that the 12% Muslim quota was in the hands of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and in those of the Supreme Court if the PM did not accede to it.

Reddy claimed that KCR had always supported the BJP and the Sangh Parivar. He pointed out that the TRS had supported the BJP's Presidential candidate Ram Nath Kovind, who hailed from the Sangh Parivar, for the top constitutional post. Similarly, KCR had also supported the candidature of BJP leader M Venkaiah Naidu for the post of Vice-President of India, he said.

Reddy said that the secret friendship between KCR and PM Modi needed to be exposed, and that the Muslims needed to be alerted that KCR was not sincere about implementing the 12% quota for them.

He again challenged KCR to announce that the TRS would not seek the votes of the Muslims in the next elections if the 12% quota promise was not fulfilled by then.

Kuntia and Abdullah Sohail also spoke.