The Andhra Pradesh Cabinet has approved reservations for Backward Classes (BCs) in local bodies based on the report of the Rajiv Ranjan Mishra Commission, including quotas for urban ward members, municipal chairpersons and mayors. The decision could reshape representation in municipal institutions, but the supplied report contains an inconsistency over the number of categories covered.
According to the report by Deccan Chronicle, the Cabinet finalised different reservation percentages for local-government positions. For urban institutions, BC reservations were listed at 32.78 per cent for urban ward members, 33.02 per cent for municipal chairpersons and 35.29 per cent for mayors.
The decision also covers rural local-body positions. The report lists reservations of 26.73 per cent for panchayat ward members and 27.95 per cent for sarpanches. It gives a quota of 25.55 per cent for Mandal Parishad Territorial Constituency, or MPTC, members and 24.60 per cent for Mandal Parishad presidents.
At the district level, the reported reservation is 24.60 per cent for Zilla Parishad Territorial Constituency, or ZPTC, members and 23.08 per cent for Zilla Parishad chairpersons. These reservations relate to elected positions across Andhra Pradesh’s rural and urban local-government structure.
The urban provisions are significant because municipal ward members, chairpersons and mayors are responsible for decision-making within institutions that oversee civic services and local administration. The report, however, does not provide details on the election schedule, the method for rotating reserved positions, or how the percentages will be applied across individual municipalities.
It also does not reproduce the Cabinet resolution or the Rajiv Ranjan Mishra Commission’s recommendations. Those documents would be needed to establish the legal and administrative basis of the percentages, including whether the figures represent statewide allocations, category-specific calculations or reservation levels to be applied during a particular round of local-body elections.
The report describes the decision as approval of reservations in eight categories, but it lists percentages for nine offices: panchayat ward members, sarpanches, MPTC members, Mandal Parishad presidents, ZPTC members, Zilla Parishad chairpersons, urban ward members, municipal chairpersons and mayors. The discrepancy does not by itself establish whether one of the offices has been grouped with another or whether the description contains an error.
Clarification from the Andhra Pradesh government, along with the Cabinet decision or the commission report, is therefore necessary before the reservation structure can be reported as final in detail. The next relevant steps will be the publication of the official order and any subsequent notification governing local-body elections and seat allocation.
