Telangana Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy seems to have had a sudden spiritual awakening—no, not the kind that leads to personal enlightenment, but one that leads straight to the BC vote bank. And lo and behold, at his side is the eternal yatra-yogi, Rahul Gandhi, now pretending to carry the cross of social justice that his family conveniently forgot for the last 70 years.
Suddenly, Congress is in love with the BCs. Or so they claim.
After decades of treating OBCs and BCs as political afterthoughts—useful only during elections and forgettable the moment power is secured—the Congress now wants to compensate for generations of neglect with a hurried 42% reservation in Telangana local body polls. Sounds noble, until you scratch the surface and see it for what it is: a cynical, last-minute con job to arrest the steady flow of BC support towards Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP.
Let’s not forget: this is the same Congress that, despite ruling India and most of its states for over six decades, did virtually nothing for Hindu BCs. The Mandal Commission? Thank V.P. Singh. OBC inclusion in the mainstream? Credit goes to leaders like Modi, who proudly acknowledge their OBC identity rather than using it as a tool to peddle guilt and guilt-trips.
Meanwhile, Congress was busy cosying up to the Muslim minority—creating entrenched vote banks, appeasing the radical fringe, and weaponizing “secularism” to silence Hindu assertion. In Telangana, Muslims have predictably leaned back towards their party—the AIMIM—while in Kerala, the IUML remains the Congress’s uncomfortable but compulsive bedfellow.
So, now that the Muslim vote isn’t as dependable, and upper castes have largely fled to greener pastures, the grand old party suddenly remembers the “Bahujan” in Bharat. And Revanth Reddy, with his oversized ambition and undercooked strategy, thinks dangling the reservation carrot will yield the electoral stick to beat the BJP.
But this BC gamble isn’t going unchallenged.
BJP leaders have rightly called out the hypocrisy. After all, if Revanth Reddy is so passionate about OBC empowerment, why does his own Cabinet look like a gated OC enclave? Seven upper-caste ministers and a mere three from BC backgrounds, in a state where BCs make up nearly 50% of the population? Either arithmetic is no longer a Congress strength, or their social justice math comes with a heavy caste filter.
MP Raghunandan Rao asked the right question: If Revanth is truly committed to BC upliftment, why not relinquish the Chief Minister’s chair to a BC leader like Mahesh Kumar Goud or Ponnam Prabhakar? After all, symbolic gestures are best proven by personal sacrifice. But alas, in the Congress handbook, “representation” is for others. The throne is for the self.
Revanth’s earlier jibe at PM Modi—calling him a “converted BC”—wasn’t just in poor taste; it exposed the elite contempt Congress still holds for self-made leaders from backward communities. For the dynastic party, backward caste credentials are valid only when they’re bestowed by birth and conveniently discarded in practice. In contrast, Modi wears his OBC identity with pride, not as a badge to demand votes, but as a lived reality that informs his politics.
So, let’s be clear. This sudden BC outreach by Congress is not born out of penance or principle. It’s panic politics. A desperate attempt to fracture the Hindu vote, divide the OBC surge moving towards Modi, and rebuild a crumbling narrative with stale caste slogans.
But this time, voters seem far more alert. They can smell tokenism from a mile away.
Revanth Reddy’s 42% reservation move might earn headlines, but unless he’s willing to match words with action—starting with his own chair—it’s all just a noisy caste circus. And the ringmaster is quickly running out of tricks.
