Having ruled out a snap poll in the State Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has thrown himself into strengthening his Telangana Rashtra Samithi and fulfilling all his major election promises including. 12% reservation quota for both the Backward sections of Muslim minority and the scheduled tribes.
Mindful of serious challenge he was going to face from the main opposition Congress and a resurgent BJP riding on Modi factor KCR was pulling out all the stops to turn the TRS into a fighting fit machine.
He has chalked out an ambitious plan to increase the strength of his party. During the membership drive launched today the part has set the target of enrolling at least one million member more members taking the total strength to 60 lakhs.
To ensure that the entire party machinery is involved in this drive KCR has assigned specific responsibility to all the ministers, legislators and the MPs and Incharge of all the constituencies.
Once this process is completed the party will focus on revamping the organisation right from grassroots level and also constitute booth committee to cover each and every household across the State.
To make membership drive a success the party has linked it to an insurance scheme. TRS will be paying a premium of Rs 10 crore to bring all its members under the insurance scheme. As the premium has been doubled from last year's Rs 5 crore the party has also increased the membership fee. An ordinary membership fee will now be Rs 30 and active membership fee will be Rs 100. However the active membership for the scheduled caste and scheduled tribes will be only Rs 50.
Subsequently the party will also organise district wise conferences as part of the exercise to strengthen the organisation ahead of next month's State plenary at Warangal. This will coincide with the party formation day on April 27.
The party sources said that the party plenary will be the biggest show of strength by the TRS to give a further boost to the morale of the rank and file. The party will go all out to highlight the achievements of KCR Government over the last two years and nine months. Several resolutions including on the economic and political affairs will be passed by the plenary. The future course of action to be chalked out at the plenary will continue to lay the emphasis on the welfare of the weaker sections. It was in this vein that KCR came out forcefully in the legislative council yesterday in favour of 12% reservation quota for the Backward sections of Muslim community.
Brushing aside the threat of the BJP to launch a mass movement against reservation to the Muslims KCR said, "I will lead an all party delegation to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi to ensure reservation for Muslims and STS", he declared.
He said that if need be pressure will be mounted on the Center, he will sit on a dharna at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi and he will also hold a meeting of the Chief Ministers on the issue.
He warned that if the Center does not cooperate with him on the issue he will take path of protest and join hands with other parties.
Stressing that he was very much serious on the issue the Chief Minister told the leader of opposition in Council Mohammed Ali Shabbir that the state government will not confine itself to passing the reservation bill in the state legislature but strive to get schedule 9 of the constitution amended.
He informed the House that the state BC commission will submit its report to the government In a couple of days and the relevant will be passed in both the Houses unanimously during the current session.
"To avoid any legal challenge we are consulting the legal and constitutional experts of High Court and Supreme Court", he said.
Countering the opponents of reservations to Muslims he said, "the reservation is not based on religion but on the based on backwardness".
90 percent of population of the state was Backward and with the increase in the population of the Backward sections there are demands for giving proportional reservations to all the sections.
Strongly defending his stand on the issue of reservation for Muslims he said that it was their legitimate and constituon right.
"The people who ruled the country 750 years is today wss facing the backwardness", he said underlining the need for reservation.
Meanwhile continuing its tour to study the economic and educational backwardness of Muslims the state BC Commission was holding its two days hearing in Hyderabad from today and it will receive representation from various sections.