The judgment of the AP High Court on conducting the local body elections has taken the wind out of sails of the Congress Government which is already pushed to the wall on the fee reimbursement issue.
With the High Court dismissing the request of the Government to allow 60.5 per cent reservations in all, the Kiran Kumar Reddy government is at its wits’ end and struggling to find a way out on the issue.
The government finds itself sandwiched between the High Court judgment and the demands of the BC leaders who have asked it to implement the reservations based on 2011 census.
While the High Court asked the Election Commission to hold elections to all Gram Panchayats, ZPTCs and MPTCs within three months of submission of a letter by the government that it has formulated the reservation policy within the ceiling of 50 percent, it gave the option of conducting the elections based on 2001 census.
This is not acceptable to the BC leaders who said they would not allow the government to go ahead with the elections if the reservations are not based on the 2011 census.
The options before Government
The government has only two options to follow on the issue. Either it has to implement the HC order in letter and spirit or it has to appeal to the Supreme Court to satisfy the BC leaders and seek permission to increase the total reservations percentage to 60.5.
On the other hand, if the Government seeks to implement the HC order as it is, it will face resistance from the BC leaders in the Congress and other parties as well. The BC leaders may also approach Supreme Court seeking to hike the reservations to the previous figure of 60.5 per cent.
In such a case, the government will also have to take the blame that it is not sincerely inclined towards BC welfare.
Notwithstanding the statements by the congress leaders that they are ready to test their strength in the local body elections, the Congress leadership in the state may not find it easy to take a decision on the issue.
To hold or not to hold the elections is the dilemma being faced by the Congress Government at the moment.
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