4% Muslim quota 'will remain': Andhra CM Jagan Mohan Reddy

Kurnool/Andhra Pradesh: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy promised that the 4 per cent Muslim reservations in the state will remain and added that it is YSR Congress Party's "final word" on the continuously debated minority reservations in the state, Asian News International reported.

He told a public gathering in Kurnool that Chandrababu Naidu allies with BJP, which is tending to remove the 4 per cent Muslim quota, and at the same time, he seeks minority votes, using a "new drama". He asked if anyone witnessed a chameleon like Naidu.

"Come what may, 4 per cent of Muslim reservations will remain, and that is YSR Congress Party's final word on it," ANI quoted Reddy.

He also wondered why Naidu sided with the BJP, who wanted to cancel the Muslim reservation.

Later, he commented on the Lok Sabha polls, saying that there will be a battle of Kurukshetra in four days, which is not about MPs or MLAs but the future of ongoing schemes and development of every household. He said that if Chandrababu Naidu is voted to power, the state will miss all the welfare his government has implemented.

Criticising Naidu, Reddy said the former boasted for 14 years about being a chief minister but only for a three-year term. He asked if anyone from the poor communities remembered welfare schemes Naidu brought to the state when his government had brought many without discriminating among demographies.

Recently, RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav's statement that Muslims should get a reservation had triggered Prime Minister Narendra Modi to respond. However, Yadav later released clarification that he was trying to say that reservation benefits must be extended to Muslims in the country and emphasised that it should be on the basis of social backwardness and not religion.