Hyderabad: Describing the caste survey conducted in the state as a “role model”, Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy on Thursday, September 10, said efforts should be made to make the Centre follow the state’s model in the census.
Speaking at a meeting of the Congress Legislative Party (CLP) in Hyderabad, he said the caste survey conducted in 2024-25 is a major achievement for the government.
Leaders of Opposition in Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi respectively, wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi last month over the caste census issue, demanding that the government scrap the existing questionnaire for it and formulate a new one after consulting political parties, experts, and the general public.
Kharge and Gandhi said they do not accept the caste census being conducted in the current manner and urged the government to take a cue from the caste surveys done in Telangana and Bihar.
Alleging a conspiracy to remove votes during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR), Revanth said MLAs should make serious efforts to ensure that no eligible votes are removed from the rolls.
While the country’s adult population is said to be 103 crore, the total number of voters in the lists is shown to be 88 crore. This means the deletion of 15 crore names, he claimed, according to Congress sources.
Attacking the opposition Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), he alleged a conspiracy was made in the farmhouse of party president K Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) to disrupt the Assembly proceedings.
Referring to the row over the derogatory comments allegedly made by BRS MLCs against Assembly Speaker Gaddam Prasad Kumar, who is a Dalit leader, he said the Opposition disrupted the proceedings of the House for three days by “abusing public representatives and officials”.
The BRS remains arrogant, though it was defeated in the 2023 Elections, he said. Their legislators abused the Speaker in a highly objectionable manner and later insulted Dalits by carrying out a purification programme on a road where Congress SC Cell organised a protest against the “derogatory” comments on Gaddasm Kumar Prasad.
Reddy appreciated the MLAs for conveying to people about the “conspiracy against the government”, the sources added.
BRS MLAs P Sabita Indra Reddy and V Sunita Laxmareddy, who were in the Congress in the past, are now trying to damage the party, he alleged.
He asked whether the two would have emerged as state-level leaders had Congress not given them opportunities in the past.
He also said a public meeting would be organised soon to convey the Congress government’s welfare and development programmes as it completed 1,000 days in office.
He thanked the party MLAs and MLCs for their cooperation during the last 1,000 days.
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