Alleging that Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy is making false and baseless allegations over reservation, the state BJP has approached the Election Commission of India (ECI) demanding he should be banned from campaigning.

Polling will be held in Telangana on 13 May. With only a week remaining, all the three political parties – BJP, BRS and Congress – are quite busy in the last leg of campaigning. The Election Commission has already banned BRS supremo K Chandrasekhar Rao for two days for making derogatory comments against the Congress.

In its complaint against Reddy, the state BJP accused him of distorting the comments made by its national General Secretary Dushyant Gautam on the Constitution and the Preamble.

The BJP said that the chief minister who was also the PCC chief of Telangana made “slanderous allegation by misquoting Sri Dushyantji, regarding the removal of the Constitutional provision of reservations to the scheduled communities in the country.”

The BJP further apprehended that the Chief Minister’s comments may “cause irreparable damage to the very fabric of the society and cause social unrest due to confusion in the minds of the people.”

The saffron party demanded: “The slanderous comments of Sri Revanth Reddy are not only false, baseless and misquoted but undermining the very position of the Honourable chief minister.”

“Therefore, this is to request you to initiate immediate action against the TPCC president by prohibiting him from election campaign, to avoid any such false and baseless allegations while campaigning, especially with respect to the constitutional provisions,” it added.

Revanth Reddy who is quite a good orator and enjoys popularity among the youth A recent internal survey has also indicated that this issue was a key matter among voters. An apprehensive BJP has submitted the video of Dushyant Gautam as well as that of the Chief Minister as evidence.

Meanwhile in AP, YSRCP MP from Nellore candidate Vijayasai Reddy has wondered what will be the stand of the TDP-JSP alliance if the BJP decides to repeal the Act that allowed 4 per cent reservation for Muslims under OBC quota in its next term.

The Muslims in Andhra Pradesh are apprehensive over the alliance among BJP, TDP and JSP although N Chandrababu Naidu is going around to reassure them about their protection if he is voted to power.