Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy on Sunday said that a resolution will be passed in the State Assembly seeking to amend the Constitution for lowering the minimum age to contest Legislative Assembly elections to 21 from 25.
He termed his proposal to change the minimum age as need of the hour and insisted that the youth should play a vital role in the active politics of the country.
CM was speaking after participating in ‘Rajiv Gandhi Sadbhavana Yatra’ commemoration day here and presenting Rajiv Gandhi Sadbhavana Award to senior Congress leader and former Union minister Salman Khurshid.
Reddy praised former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi for reducing the minimum voting age from 21 to 18 saying it helped the country in strengthening the parliamentary democratic spirit. Reddy said 21-year-old IAS and IPS officers are successfully working in districts and sought to know “why one cannot be an MLA at 21 years of age?”.
“In the coming days, a resolution will be passed in the Telangana Assembly seeking Constitutional amendment for reducing the minimum age to contest Assembly elections from 25 to 21. Youth must be given the opportunity to run the country,” Reddy said.
He remembered that the Sadbhavna Yatra was taken up by Rajiv Gandhi to safeguard the integrity of the country. Reddy also recalled that Gandhi family has inspired the entire country and the word - Gandhi is synonymous with India.
Chief minister further attacked the opposition BRS accusing that it is the “B” team of BJP to split the votes in the ensuing Jubilee Hills Assembly constituency bypoll. “BRS entered a secret agreement with BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The transfer of 21 percent votes to BJP in Lok Sabha elections was enough to prove the BRS party’ s conspiracy politics in the state,” he alleged.
Now, the BRS adopted the same political strategy in the Jubilee Hills by-election, he further alleged and claimed that the next Assembly elections will also witness BRS and BJP “collusion politics”. He appealed to people to foil the BRS attempt to split the votes in Jubilee Hills bypolls.
Later, speaking after participating in ‘Sadar Sammelan’ here organised by Sri Krishna Sadar Sammelan Utsav Committee, Reddy said that the Yadav community is being given importance in providing political opportunities as well as extending the benefits of all welfare schemes.
Chief minister said he is ready to address all the grievances of the Yadav community. He appealed to Yadavs to extend cooperation for the development of Hyderabad.
The Chief Minister recalled the pivotal role played by the community in the formation and development of Telangana state.
Later speaking at another event where he handed over appointment letters to revenue surveyor recruits, Reddy said that the Telangana people dethroned the BRS government for introducing the “draconian” Dharani Act.
He said, the Congress government scrapped ‘Dharani’ (‘Dharani’ land records management portal) soon after coming to power in the state and protected farmers from losing their ownership rights on their lands, according to an official release.
Reddy alleged that the previous government brought in ‘Dharani’ to give arbitrary authority on the lands to a handful of people.
He appealed to the Surveyors to protect the rights of land owners and determine the boundaries of the land. Chief minister further said that the officials should also cooperate with the government to achieve the goal of making Telangana a USD 3 trillion economy by 2047.
