BJP to protest against 4% reservation for Muslims in public contracts

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Belagavi, Mar 16, 2025: Karnataka BJP President B Y Vijayendra on Sunday said his party will strongly oppose and protest both inside and outside the state legislature, against the Congress government’s decision to introduce a 4 per cent reservation for Muslims in public contracts, calling it "unconstitutional" and "Sarkaari Zihad".

This government has become a "paper tiger" with no development and is only focused on minority appeasement, he alleged.

"The Chief Minister in his 16th budget presented recently (March 7), has announced a 4 per cent reservation to Muslim contractors in government tenders, a decision has also been made in this regard at the cabinet meeting on Friday. This decision is unconstitutional," Vijayendra said. Speaking to reporters here, he said that there is no mention of reservation based on religion in the constitution.

"This decision of the government is a conspiracy to create a rift or divide or gap between the religions. It is unfortunate that the Chief Minister is involved in this. The BJP strongly condemns this appeasement politics,  the party will fight and protest against this undemocratic stand of the government both inside and outside the state legislature," he added.

On Friday, the Cabinet approved an amendment to the Karnataka Transparency in Public Procurements (KTPP) Act, reserving 4 per cent of contracts in (civil) works valued up to Rs 2 crore and goods/services contracts up to Rs 1 crore for Muslims.

At present, Karnataka has reservation in civil works contracts for SC/STs (24 per cent) and OBC contractors belonging to Category-1 (4 per cent) and Category-2A (15 per cent). There were demands to add Muslims under Category-2B of the OBCs with a reservation of 4 per cent.