Andhra charts landmark SC sub-categorisation

Chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu has unveiled a landmark move—Andhra Pradesh will roll out Scheduled Castes sub-categorisation district-wise after the 2026 census delivers fresh numbers. He told the Assembly the TDP-led government’s locked into its poll promise, carving reservation benefits fair across SC communities, backed by a one-man commission from retired IAS officer Rajiv Ranjan Mishra.

The blueprint marks Relli’s 12 castes as the most sidelined, Madiga’s 18 as mid-tier, and Mala’s 29 as less pressed—slating 1 per cent, 6.5 per cent, and 7.5 per cent shares. Naidu’s waiting for census data across 26 districts, vowing no group gets left behind. A Tirupati shopkeeper might eye the shift, recalling how 22,000 jobs bloomed when sub-groups split under his earlier reign.

This landmark push kicked off in 1995 with Manda Krishna’s Madiga Dandora cry for equity, birthing the Justice Ramachandra Rao Commission. By 1997, A-B-C-D slots got presidential ink, only for the Supreme Court to punt it to Parliament in 2004—until Chief Justice DY Chandrachud’s bench swung it back to states last year. Naidu frames it as a 30-year slog hitting paydirt.