BJP stages protest against 4% quota for Muslims in govt. contracts

Kalaburagi BJP protests against Karnataka government's 4% reservation for minority contractors, demands suspension revocation for 18 BJP legislators.

Opposing the Congress-led State government’s decision to amend Karnataka Transparency in Public Procurements Act (KTPP Act) providing 4% reservation in government tenders for minority contractors, the Kalaburagi district unit of the BJP staged a protest here on Tuesday.

BJP local leaders and party workers gathered at Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Chowk and burned the Congress government in an effigy demanding that it scrap the facility granting 4% reservation to Muslims in government tenders, calling it unconstitutional and undemocratic.

Later, they took out a protest march to the Deputy Commissioner’s office.

The protestors also slammed Speaker U.T. Khader’s decision to suspend 18 BJP legislators from the Assembly for six months and demanded that he revoke the suspension of all the MLAs immediately.

They said that the then BJP government had released ₹1,000 crore for implementing welfare schemes for other backward classes (OBCs) under the boards and corporations, but the Congress-led government did not allott a single rupee for the welfare of OBCs in the recent budget.

The BJP leaders, including party’s district urban unit president Chandrakant Patil, MLAs Basavaraj Mattimod and Avinash Jadhav, MLC Shashil Namoshi, the former MLC Amarnath Patil and the former State vice-president of BJP’s OBC Morcha Avvanna Myakeri, participated in the protest.