Vijayawada:Andhra Pradesh coalition government on Saturday proposed an average reservation of 28.18 per cent for Backward Classes (BCs) in local body elections. The coalition partners in the government promised more than 34 per cent party-level opportunities wherever statutory quotas fall short.
Briefing reporters after the cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu at the State Secretariat, Agriculture minister K. Atchannaidu said the proposed reservation for BCs is based on the report of Rajiv Ranjan Mishra Commission and in accordance with Supreme Court guidelines.
Atchannaidu recalled that N.T. Rama Rao introduced 20 per cent reservations for BCs in 1987. The Chandrababu Naidu government increased the quota to 34 per cent in 1995 through amendments to the Panchayat Raj Act. The minister charged that the YSRC government reduced the quota for BCs to 24 per cent in 2019, costing BCs around 17,000 political positions at various levels.
The agriculture minister said when NDA coalition government sought to restore the 34 per cent quota recently, it faced legal objections. It thus constituted a special commission under senior IAS officer Rajiv Ranjan Mishra through GO No. 3 dated February 19, 2026.
The commission collected data across districts and social groups and recommended reservations based on the BC population in individual local body units. The cabinet has approved the recommendations and forwarded them to the State Election Commission.
The proposed BC reservations are 26.73 per cent for gram panchayat ward members, 27.95 per cent for sarpanches, 25.55 per cent for mandal parishad territorial constituencies (MPTCs), 24.60 per cent for mandal parishad presidents (MPPs), 24.60 per cent for zilla parishad territorial constituencies (ZPTCs) and 23.08 per cent for zilla parishad chairpersons.
In urban local bodies, the proposed quota is 32.78 per cent for ward members, 33.02 per cent for municipal chairpersons, and 35.29 per cent for mayors. The overall average across local bodies is 28.18 per cent, Atchannaidu underlined.
The agriculture minister underlined that coalition partners would provide more than 34 per cent party-level opportunities wherever statutory reservations are lower.
Social welfare minister Dola Bala Veeranjaneya Swamy said reservations have been calculated using population data for individual local units. Scheduled tribe (ST) reservations had been considered first, followed by scheduled caste (SC) reservations, before determining the legally permissible BC share. SC and ST allocations have been based on the 2011 Census, he pointed out.
Health minister Satya Kumar Yadav said the NDA government at the centre and the coalition government in AP are committed to BC empowerment. He questioned the YSRC government’s decision to reduce reservations and said the government had followed Supreme Court guidelines to ensure legally sustainable allocations.
The ministers said the government is ready to conduct local body elections on time. The notification for the polls will be issued by the State Election Commission.
Other ministers present at the briefing included Kolusu Parthasarathy, S. Savitha, Gummidi Sandhya Rani and Vangalapudi Anitha.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: deccanchronicle.com
