Telangana to conduct second round of caste survey amid Opposition backlash
Bharat Rashtra Samithi leaders questioned whether the state’s Backward Classes population has indeed reduced from 51% in 2014 to 46% presently.
The Telangana government on Wednesday said it would conduct a second round of its caste survey from February 16 to February 28, India Today reported.
The exercise will cover the 3.1% of the population that did not participate in first leg of the survey in November and December, Deputy Chief Minister Bhatti Vikramarka Mallu said.
Citizens may also seek to update their data in the second round, the Congress leader added, reiterating his government’s committment to providing the Other Backward Classes with 42% reservation in government jobs and education.
VIDEO | Telangana caste survey: Deputy CM Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka said, "For the people who have left and not joined, including KTR, KCR, and some others, we are giving one more chance to them to get themselves enrolled and give information for the caste survey. In the first… pic.twitter.com/WmQ1mtHCuB
— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) February 12, 2025
Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy tabled the caste survey in the Assembly on February 4. The survey showed that Backward Classes, including Muslims, comprise 56.33% of the state’s population. The share of Backward Classes other than Muslims is 46.25%.
The Scheduled Castes comprise 17.4%, or 61.8 lakh, of the population and the Scheduled Tribes account for 10.4%, or 37 lakh persons.
The findings of the survey sparked criticism from the Bharatiya Janata Party and Bharat Rashtra Samithi, the key Opposition parties in the state.
BJP National General Secretary Bandi Sanjay said on Thursday that Muslims would never be accepted in the Backward Classes list.
“BJP is unequivocally against religious-based reservations,” he said. “Despite being aware of this, Congress still trying to push it onto the Centre is sheer foolishness.”
Sanjay alleged that the Congress was not sincere in implementing reservations for the Backward Classes.
Muslims in the BC list will never be accepted, period.
— Bandi Sanjay Kumar (@bandisanjay_bjp) February 13, 2025
BJP is unequivocally against religious-based reservations. Despite being aware of this, Congress still trying to push it onto the Centre is sheer foolishness.
One thing is clear, Congress lacks sincerity in implementing BC…
Bharat Rashtra Samithi president KT Rama Rao on Wednesday demanded an unconditional apology from Reddy for reducing the share of the Backward Classes in the survey from 51% in 2014 to 46% this year, The Hindu reported.
The Bharat Rashtra Samithi leader welcomed the decision to carry out a second round of the survey.
The caste survey was one of the promises made by the Congress ahead of the Telangana Assembly elections in December 2023. It defeated the Bharat Rashtra Samithi and won the polls.
Telangana is the third state to carry out a caste survey after Bihar and Andhra Pradesh.
