BENGALURU: The state cabinet’s decision to set up a single-member commission headed by a retired high court judge to review implementation of internal reservation, classifying the quota for the Scheduled Castes, is likely to have its impact on the November 13 byelections to the Legislative Assembly from Channapatna, Shiggaon and Sandur constituencies.
Happy with this decision, Congress leaders, especially from the SC left (Madiga) community, including Excise Minister RB Thimmapur, former minister H Anjaneya, and former RS member Dr L Hanumanthaiah, met Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar on Tuesday and expressed their gratitude.
According to sources, these leaders, who have been assigned the task of ensuring the victory of Congress candidates in the byelections, are expected to work enthusiastically in these constituencies.
On an average, each of these constituencies have 30,000-35,000 SC voters. While Channapatna is dominated by SC (right) voters, Sandur and Shiggaon have a large number of SC (left) voters.
E Annapoorna of Congress, which won Sandur in the last Assembly elections, seems to have an edge over candidates of other parties. But in Shiggaon and Channapatna, where BJP and JDS won, respectively, in the last Assembly elections, Congress candidates may give them a tough fight with the backing of voters from the SC (left) community, according to a leader from the community.
“We pressured the CM that if the community has to back Congress in the coming bypolls, his cabinet must take the decision on internal reservation and he just did it,” a leader from SC (left) community told TNIE.
“Madigas stand by Siddaramaiah who helped improve their economic status. We are with him. This will be made known in the coming byelections. Everyone in our community will work for the victory of Congress candidates in the three constituencies,” said Anjaneya.
“It was a victory for the internal reservation struggle. This was made possible by Siddaramaiah,” said Thimmapur.
“The Madiga community has been fighting for internal reservation for decades. Now, the Supreme Court has also given its verdict. We have to implement it. There are 101 Scheduled Castes. It is important to take everyone into confidence. Although it is not possible to keep everyone happy, a decision has to be taken to satisfy 90% of these communities. Our government will do this,” Siddaramaiah said.
At a meeting of Dalit MLAs held at Home Minister Dr Parameshwara’s residence, which was coordinated by Malavalli MLA PM Narendra Swamy and MLC HP Sudham Das, a consensus was arrived at that everyone is in favor of internal reservation.
Shivakumar clarified that his government is committed to implementing the internal quota as Congress had promised these communities at a convention held in Chitradurga ahead of the 2023 Assembly elections. “We had also included it in our party’s election manifesto,” he said.
CM clarifies
Meanwhile, Siddaramaiah on Tuesday clarified that except for the notifications that have already been issued, no new government recruitment notification will be released until the commission submits its report within three months.
“Without compromising on the issue of social justice, we took every community under the SC category into confidence and took the decision. Social justice can’t be ensured without such a decision,” Siddaramaiah said.
But Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R Ashoka said it was the previous BJP government led by CM Basavaraj Bommai which took the decision to classify SC reservation.
