The LOP in the Karnataka Legislative Council, Chalavadi Narayanaswamy, said on Sunday that BJP will oppose a proposed bill that provides for the reserve for religious minorities in government contracts, an opinion resonated by the president of the state party by Vijayendra in Belagavi. Last week, the Cabinet approved the Karnataka Transparency Bill in Public Procurement (amendment), 2025, which seeks to provide a 4% reserve in contracts for civil contractors of religious minorities. The government is likely to enter the bill in the assembly on Tuesday. “He is purely aimed at appeasing his Muslim votes bank,” Narayanaswamy said. “The reserve based on religion is a violation of the Constitution. We will oppose the tooth and the nail in both houses and abroad,” he added.
The previous BJP government had discarded 4% reserve for Muslims In Jobs and Education, presented by Janata Dal Govt directed by HD Deve Gowda in 1995, he said. “But the manifesto surveyed of Congress had promised to restore it, although a case is pending in the Court. Now, the Congress is trying to reintroduce the quota in reserve in civil contracts,” he said. Vijayendra called him “a conspiracy to divide people into religious lines.”