Karnataka Congress stuck in a quota matrix

The announcement of the Congress government in Karnataka to have one of the largest recruitment drives in the State to fill up 56,432 posts to placate restive, unemployed youth has brought to the fore the complexities of reservation and has sharply divided Dalit communities. The government has announced that recruitment needs to be done with a cap on reservation at 50% that existed prior to December 2022. It has also given up on the newly provided internal reservation among the 101 Scheduled Castes (SCs) in the State. These two decisions have not gone down well.

The reservation complex

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in 2022 through the Karnataka Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Reservation of Seats in Educational Institutions and of Appointments or Posts in the Services under the State) Act, 2022, had hiked reservations for SCs from 15% to 17% and for Scheduled Tribes (STs) from 3% to 7%. With 32% reserved for Other Backward Classes (OBCs), the total reservation in Karnataka went up to 56%. While this has been questioned in the High Court, experts have also pointed out that increasing reservation without Constitutional backing will lead to legal hurdles.

With multiple cases in the Karnataka High Court — first against breaching the reservation quota the Supreme Court had capped at 50% to 56%, and later against the internal reservation matrix announced by the State government — hiring had slowed down in the State. Moreover, in between, the State government had paused the hiring process for about a year to enable the H.N. Nagamohan Das Commission to collect empirical data and recommend the internal reservation matrix.

However, under pressure and amid protests by unemployed youth, the government took the decision to restart the hiring process within 30 days, but the Government Order capped reservation at 50% and did not account for internal quota, citing the ongoing cases in the High Court.

Ironically, the Congress government took the decision to not implement internal reservation in the current recruitment cycle on the day the Governor gave his assent to the Karnataka Scheduled Castes (Sub-Classification) Bill, 2025. It provides that the overall 17% reservation for the 101 SCs will be divided proportionally across three categories. Even before this Legislative action, nomadic communities among the SCs had approached the High Court, questioning the reservation matrix.

The Congress in its 2023 manifesto had promised the implementation of internal reservation. Now, stung by the government’s decision, the Dalit left communities, which had fought for internal reservation for nearly four decades, have asked the government to fix internal quota within the 15% (before the 2022 Act) before any recruitment process is commenced. They argue that the benefits of reservation in public recruitment and education have been cornered by relatively well-off Dalit right (Holeya and other castes) communities and the ‘touchable’ castes of Bhovi, Korama, Koracha and Lambani. The Federation of Madiga Sanghas (comprising Dalit left communities) has identified Dalit right castes as those “opposed to internal reservation” (Left and right here are mere categories and not ideologies).

Cabinet divide

The issue has also divided the Cabinet with Dalit right Ministers arguing against the internal reservation, prompting the Dalit left community leaders to seek the resignation of Social Welfare Minister H.C. Mahadevappa, a Dalit right leader, for being “biased.” The two Dalit left Ministers in the Cabinet are also upset and have questioned Chief Minister Siddaramaiah over the “injustice.” In Karnataka, Dalit right groups are seen as loyal to the Congress, while Dalit left communities are seen as having drifted to the BJP.

The move has also upset the STs who have issues with the overall reduction in reservation. Though the government has said that it will reserve an additional 2% to SCs and 4% for STs — subject to the outcome in Court — the STs see it as “eyewash” and argue that around 3,385 posts would go to the general category in the current recruitment cycle.

Stuck in this reservation vortex, the Congress government is likely to tread cautiously as the decision could later upset poll calculations, especially in north Karnataka where the ST and Dalit left population is high.