Agriculture Minister K. Atchannaidu, along with several of his Cabinet colleagues, addressing the media at the Secretariat in Amaravati on Saturday.
Ensuring adequate political representation and social justice for the Backward Classes (BCs) in the local body elections is the coalition government’s primary objective, says Agriculture Minister K. Atchannaidu.
Addressing the media at the Secretariat after the special Cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu on Saturday, Mr. Atchannaidu said the BCs would receive an average reservation of 28.18% based on the Rajiv Ranjan Mishra Commission report, while the NDA partners (TDP, BJP and JSP) would provide more than 34% of the party-level opportunities, wherever statutory reservation fell short.
Mr. Atchannaidu said the government was committed to protecting the BCs’ constitutional rights and expanding their political opportunities within the legal framework.
Recalling the history of BC reservations, he said that the TDP founder-president and former Chief Minister N.T. Rama Rao had introduced 20% reservation for the BCs in 1987, which was subsequently increased to 34% by the TDP government headed by Mr. Naidu in 1995 through amendments to the Panchayat Raj Act.
The YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) government had reduced the reservation for the BCs to 24% in 2019, resulting in the loss of nearly 17,000 political positions for the communities across various levels, Mr. Atchannaidu recalled.
The NDA government subsequently sought to restore the 34% reservation, but faced legal challenges, following which it had to approach the Supreme Court.
Mr. Atchannaidu said the NDA government had constituted a special commission headed by senior IAS officer Rajiv Ranjan Mishra through G.O. Ms. No. 3, dated February 19, 2026, in accordance with the Supreme Court guidelines.
The Commission had gathered data across districts, regions and social groups before recommending reservations for different categories of local bodies. The Cabinet had approved its recommendations and forwarded them to the State Election Commission for further action.
According to the Commission’s report, BC reservations had been proposed at 26.73% for gram panchayat ward members, 27.95% for sarpanches, 25.55% for MPTCs, 24.60% for MPPs and ZPTCs, and 23.08% for district parishad chairpersons. In the urban local bodies, the proposed reservations were 32.78% for ward members, 33.02% for municipal chairpersons and 35.29% for mayors.
Mr. Atchannaidu said the overall average across the local bodies worked out to be 28.18%. Where reservations were below 34%, the NDA partners would provide additional opportunities through party nominations, he added.
Social Welfare Minister Dola Sree Bala Veeranjaneya Swamy said that the SC and ST reservations had been determined using the 2011 Census, with BC allocations finalised after accounting for these quotas and applicable legal limits.
Health Minister Satya Kumar Yadav said the government was committed to BC empowerment and questioned the previous YSRCP government’s decision to reduce the reservation.
The Ministers said the coalition government was prepared for the local body elections once the Election Commission issued the notification.
Ministers S. Savitha, Vangalapudi Anitha, Kolusu Parthasarathy, and G. Sandhya Rani were present.
Published – October 10, 2026 06:39 pm IST
