Hyderabad: Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy has proposed the name of former Haryana Governor Bandaru Dattatreya for the Vice-President’s post that has fallen vacant following the dramatic resignation of the incumbent Jagdeep Dhankhar. Reddy has opined that having Dattatreya would render justice to the southern state of Telangana and to BCs. He said that his removal from the Governor's post was an insult to Telangana and its people. This can duly be compensated by naming him as Dhankhar’s successor.

He was responding to a question on Dhankhar’s resignation during a press conference in Delhi on Wednesday. However, he quickly clarified that it was not his party’s position, and he was speaking on behalf of Telangana people. He assured to work towards evolving a national consensus, if Dattatreya is declared as the V-P candidate.

Revanth Reddy said that two resolutions were passed in the Assembly regarding 42 per cent reservation for BCs in education, job opportunities, and local bodies and were sent to Parliament. But the Centre is ‘delaying its approval’. He said that the Congress party will put pressure on the Centre and a plan of action will be chalked out during the meeting with Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge on Thursday for garnering support from all Opposition parties.

The Chief Minister said that the Congress MPs will be explained in detail about the caste census.

Over allegations of minority appeasement through Muslim reservation, he reiterated that groups of Muslim community were identified based on their economic backwardness. He affirmed that Muslims were not given reservations based on religion, but because of backwardness. He said that 38 Muslim sub-castes are getting reservations in Madhya Pradesh.

He questioned whether it is true that 27 Muslim sub-castes are getting reservations in Gujarat and seven Muslim sub-castes in Uttar Pradesh. He questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s decision to include Muslim groups in Gujarat under the Pasmanda category for reservations. He said reservations were continuing in States like Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra. The Chief Minister emphasised that the BJP leaders are talking without the slightest understanding about BC reservations. He accused them of finding excuses to block BC reservations one way or the other.

He said that the expert committee on caste census has given a report, which will be placed before the people after a threadbare discussion in the Cabinet and Legislative Assembly. Deriding his predecessor K Chandrashekar Rao for his ‘injustice’ to BCs by amending the Panchayat Raj Act, Revanth Reddy said that the present Congress government was trying to provide reservations based on social backwardness.