All Andhra Pradesh political parties, barring the Bharatiya Janata Party, on Wednesday urged the government to pursue its decision to provide five per cent reservation to Muslims in jobs and educational institutions, even if it required a Constitutional amendment.
Ruling Congress, Telugu Desam Party, Communist Party of India, Communist Party of India-Marxist, Telangana Rashtriya Samithi and others supported reservations to Muslims and urged the state to move the Supreme Court against the high court ruling that quashed the Muslim Reservation Ordinance on technical grounds.
"The state government must announce weather it will move Supreme Court and under what grounds," the members said and urged the state to mount pressure on Centre to amend the Constitution to this effect.
The debate remained inconclusive while the minister for minorities welfare, in a statement listed out the measures the government was taking up to uplift minorities.
Initiating the short discussion, T Devender Goud said that Muslims were backward in the state and the Congress government has 'no real commitment to uplift the community' but was only 'playing vote bank politics'.
Extending support, Goud said, "We are for quota to Muslims but the government must take up the issue sincerely as we feel that the bill was hurried through the assembly, without considering the legal consequences on eve of municipal elections."
More reports from Andhra Pradesh
