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Karnataka polls:Slugfest after Cong vows to increase quota limit to 75%
The Congress party’s proposal is seen as a counter to the BJP’s decision to increase reservations for Lingayats, Vokkaligas, Scheduled Castes, and Scheduled Tribes, while removing the four per cent reservation for Muslims, which they, in turn, deem “unconstitutional.”
The reservation policy in Karnataka has become a heated political issue, with the Congress party proposing to increase the reservation for deprived classes to 75% if voted to power in the upcoming state assembly elections. In response, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has said that such an increase is not possible constitutionally.
The Congress party’s proposal is seen as a counter to the BJP’s decision to increase reservations for Lingayats, Vokkaligas, Scheduled Castes, and Scheduled Tribes, while removing the four per cent reservation for Muslims, which they, in turn, deem “unconstitutional.”
On Thursday, former chief minister and Congress leader Siddaramaiah said that his party would increase the reservation limit in Karnataka from 50% to 75% if voted to power in the upcoming Assembly elections. However, former chief minister BS Yediyurappa said it would never be met as the Opposition party in the state “was headed for defeat”.
“Since he (Siddaramaiah) is going to lose miserably, the question of increasing the reservation limit in the state does not arise. We [BJP] are going to do everything in our power to form the government,” the veteran Lingayat leader said.
Another BJP leader, Shobhna Karandlaje, said increasing the reservation was not possible as “there is a 50% cap imposed by the Supreme Court”.
Siddaramaiah countered, saying the reservation has already breached the 50% ceiling fixed by the Supreme Court in Karnataka and asked why it can’t be further increased to 75% to provide reservation to all the deserving communities.
“The reservation has already breached the 50% limit. With the increase in the reservation for SCs & STs based on the recommendation of Nagmohan Das’s commission, the total reservation is now 56%. Why can’t this be further increased to 75% to provide reservations to all the deserving communities?” he tweeted on Thursday.
Hitting out at senior BJP leader Shobha Karandlaje, he said, “@ShobhaBJPvthinks that the reservation cannot be increased beyond 50%, how did they increase the reservation for SCs & STs?
The whole process is BJP’s election gimmick!! @BJP4Karnataka has no intention of actually increasing the reservation for SC/STs.”
Days after Union home minister Amit Shah questioned Congress’s stand on reservation for Lingayats and Vokkaligas, Siddaramaiah on Wednesday, in a series of tweets, said that the party would increase the reservation cap from 50 to 75% giving reservation to all communities based on the population.
Shah on Monday asked Congress to clarify its stand on the reservation after the Opposition leaders said they would revoke the cancellation of 4% reservation to Muslims. “I humbly ask Congress leaders from where they would bring back reservations for Muslims. Where would they reduce the reservation? Do you want to reduce the reservation of Vokkaligas, Lingayats, Dalits, SC or STs?” he had asked.
Responding to the home minister, Siddaramaiah on Wednesday, in a series of tweets, said “every deserving community could be given reservation” without scrapping reservation for Muslims.
“There is no need to scrap the reservation for Muslims to increase the reservation for Vokkaligas and Lingayats. Every deserving community can be given a reservation based on their population if the reservation limit of 50% is removed. BJP never had an intension of giving reservation to Vokkaligas & Lingayats, but were only interested in removing the reservation for Muslims,” the senior Congress leader tweeted.
Siddaramaiah clarified that Congress is not against increasing the reservations for Vokkaligas and Lingayats. “We are not against increasing the reservation for Vokkaligas or Lingayats or any other community. We support the increase in reservations for everyone based on their population. We are only opposing @BJP4Karnataka’s eye wash during elections.”
Further, the former chief minister said that Congress would give reservations to deserving communities by increasing the reservation ceiling from 50% to 75%. “Congress party is committed to increasing the reservation limit from 50% to 75%, and to increase reservation to all castes based on their population.”
On March 27, the state government decided to scrap the 4% quota for Muslims in the 2B category of the Other Backward Castes (OBC) in government employment and education. It was distributed equally among the Vokkaliga and Lingayat castes instead.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court on Tuesday stayed the government order (GO), with the state government conceding before the court that it will not implement the GO scrapping reservation for the Muslim community and that the “earlier regime” will be in place till the next date of hearing, May 9.
“We had decided that till the time the hearing is complete, we will not take it forward. Court has not given any stay. We only have said that you (SC) hear the case; so long the case is heard, we will not implement it,” Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai told reporters on Tuesday.
Though the state government revoked reservations based on religion, Muslims were included under the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) category, Bommai said, adding, “We have not done any injustice to them.”
