Won't Allow KCR To Give 12% Quota To Muslims: BJP

BJP national president Amit Shah today alleged that caretaker Telangana CM KCR had burdened the state by going in for early elections with the sole intention of benefiting his family members.

He also alleged that KCR had pushed budget-surplus Telangana into a debt trap with his faulty policies.

Shah, who was on a day-long visit to Telangana to address election rallies, addressed public meetings in the Parkal and Nirmal Assembly constituencies as part of his campaigning, and rattled off a litany of charges against the TRS supremo. He alleged that KCR did not keep his promise of making a dalit the first Chief Minister of the state, did not fulfill his promise of providing drinking water to every household in the state, had failed to make good on his promise of creating 1 lakh jobs, and did not implement the Aayushman Bharat scheme launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the state.

Shah also claimed that only his party could provide a government in Telangana which would not be dependent on the MIM, which he called a party of "dadas" (goons), and its leader Asaduddin Owaisi. He also vowed that the BJP would not allow the Telangana government to implement 12% reservation for Muslims, saying that his party would neither provide quotas on the basis of religion nor allow anybody else to do it. He was referring to the resolution passed by Telangana legislature and sent to the Centre, seeking its nod for increasing reservations for Muslims in jobs and education from the current 4% to 12%.

He asked the TRS where the 12% would come from, given that the ceiling on reservations was set at 50% by the Supreme Court and given that Telangana was already operating at that level, which meant that the reservations for SCs, STs and OBCs would need to be cut to accommodate the 12% for Muslims. He said that the BJP would stand as a rock to protect the reservations for SCs, STs and Other Backward Classes.

Shah also said that KCR was scared of Owaisi and so did not declare and celebrate September 17 as Hyderabad Liberation Day despite clamouring for that during the statehood movement. If the BJP came to power in Telangana, September 17 would be celebrated in a big way, he said.

Shah told the people that he would transform Telangana into a model state if the BJP came to power, and asked them for an opportunity for the BJP like they had given the Congress, the TDP and the TRS. He claimed that the Centre had provided over Rs 2.30 lakh crores for the development of Telangana during the last four years, and that half of these funds were allocated under 14th Finance Commission, while the previous UPA government had given the state only Rs 16,500 crores via the 13th Finance Commission.