*Chandrababu must apologise to BCs: Venugopala Krishna*

Tadepalli, Oct 13: Former Minister Chelluboyina Venugopala Krishna demanded that Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu apologise to Backward Classes for failing to fulfil his promise of 34% reservations in local-body elections.

Addressing the media at YSRCP headquarters, he questioned why Naidu organised celebrations and milk abhishekams after issuing reservation GOs but refused to apologise when courts struck them down. Naidu must explain why he pursued parliamentary backing for Amaravati but failed to approach Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Union Home Minister for constitutional protection of BC reservations.

Statutory reservations and party-level seat allocations are fundamentally different. Naidu cannot substitute party tickets for legally enforceable BC rights or conceal his failure through BC gatherings and attacks on YSRCP. Despite appointing a BC Deputy Chief Minister during 2014–19, Naidu has denied the community that position today.

The coalition must explain its unfulfilled promises of pensions from age 50 for BCs, Rs. 1,500 monthly assistance to adult women, BC corporation loans and sewing machines for trained women. Three lakh loan applications remain unanswered, one lakh women await sewing machines, and fee reimbursement arrears have reportedly reached Rs. 9,000 crore. The government must disclose allocations and expenditure under the Adarana scheme across three budgets.

BC ministers must address these failures instead of attacking Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy. Unlike Naidu's approach of restricting BCs to traditional occupations, Jagan prioritised their economic and political empowerment, expanded representation and introduced a private member's bill for legislative reservations.

YSRCP will continue fighting for statutory reservations, welfare commitments and political empowerment of BC communities.