Telangana Elections: Reddy Vs Reddy showdown as BRS, Congress woo with key political posts

Hyderabad: In a country where elections, politics, welfare schemes in health, job and education are still intricately linked to caste, class and religion of candidates and voters even after 75 years of independence, Telangana is no exception from playing caste cards when it comes to politics.

While BJP has played its masterstroke to entice a certain section of voters for the upcoming Assembly elections by announcing it will have a Backward Classes (BC) candidate for the coveted post of the chief minister, the Indian National Congress (INC) and Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS) have given a significant number of tickets to the Reddy community, which holds sway in the region.

On Friday, October 27, the INC party released its second list of 45 candidates for the Assembly elections. It contained the names of 22 Reddys. In its first list of 55 candidates released on October 15, there were 15 Reddys. The final list for the remaining 19 seats (out of 119 constituency seats) is likely to be out in the first week of November in which four seats (out of the 19 remaining) will be given to the Left parties. Around 50 per cent of candidates are newcomers or those who switched sides from BRS or BJP and joined or re-joined INC.

On the other hand, the BRS list had 39 contestants from the Reddy community for 115 constituencies announced on August 21. Names of candidates from four constituencies are still awaited.

Most of the Reddy population of Telangana is concentrated in Hyderabad and even if all of them may not be affluent like the Reddys of Nellore, nevertheless, the community dominates and plays a major role in the political landscape of the state.

Billionaires

Primarily an agrarian community, the Reddys belong to the land-holding gentry, though some also hold businesses. Though most of them are affluent a few are not so well-off. Post bifurcation, the Reddys in Telangana comprise roughly six per cent of the 3.8 crore population, while OBCs, STs, SCs and minorities consist of around 90 per cent. However, the small percentage of Reddys has always played a dominant role in state politics. In fact, out of 16 chief ministers of undivided Andhra Pradesh, 10 belonged to the Reddy community. As per IIFL Wealth Hurun India Rich List 2022, out of the top 10 billionaires from Hyderabad, six are Reddys, two are from the Kamma caste and one each from Kshatriya and Velama castes.

Reddy community’s support to BRS in 2014, 2018

Commenting on the Reddy versus Reddy tussle between BRS and Congress, political observer Raghavendra Reddy said, “We need to go back to the history a bit to understand this Reddy factor, which both the rival political parties are capitalising on. A decade ago, during the Telangana agitation, the Reddys aligned themselves with the movement cutting across all sections and supported K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR) who was spearheading the movement, though a small section joined BJP. The public in general believed that KCR had fought for the cause of Telangana. Once KCR became the CM of the newly formed Telangana state in 2014, he gave prominent positions to the Reddys in his cabinet and played the masterstroke in the form of Rhythu Bandhu and such beneficiary schemes, which benefited the Reddys. Even during the 2018 elections, the community stayed with KCR. However, gradually, by 2021, there seemed to be a feeling of fatigue among the public. The Congress brought in leaders like A Revanth Reddy and Uttam Kumar Reddy. After two terms with KCR, the Reddys had enough of BRS and wanted absolute political dominance. They sought an alternate government with some Reddy at the helm.”

Reddys found an alternative in Congress

“Though BJP played all the stakes and fielded a Reddy candidate in the Munugode by-elections in 2022 (K Rajagopal Reddy, who is now back to Congress and contesting again from Munugode with a Congress ticket), BJP lost to TRS (BRS) candidate K Prabhakar Reddy. Had they won, the political landscape would have changed to a great extent. The BJP failed to enthuse its cadres in a big way and even their state unit president Kishan Reddy is a reluctant state chief. Their prospects dwindled and the proposition of a BC chief minister, as announced by BJP, is not attractive to the Reddys. They were looking for a window of opportunity, which came in the form of Congress and the Reddys now already have a strong formulation of 37 seats from the list of candidates declared from 100 constituencies (19 pending) for contesting the Assembly elections,” explained the political analyst.

Newcomers in Congress Vs old timers in BRS

“To entice the Reddy voters to vote for BRS and not side with Congress, BRS has also given them decent representation in the candidate list (39 Reddy contestants). However, the difference is that most of their Reddy candidates are already sitting or existing leaders and not many new faces. On the other hand, Congress rewarded tickets to those doing hard work on the ground level apart from party loyalists and former MPs and MLAs, who came back to Congress again. Another benefit of giving tickets to Reddys is that being affluent, they can self-finance their political campaigns. Congress does not have much money to spend on poll campaigns unlike other parties like BRS and BJP,” observed Raghavendra Reddy.

Will the tide turn in favour of Congress?

Though politics and election results are as unpredictable as cricket, as per analysts, even though there is no strong anti-incumbency feeling in Telangana (unlike in Karnataka) to oust the BRS, still people wish for a change, especially since it has been a decade and so the fatigue factor among the public has crept in unlike what the situation was in 2018.

The public has also realised that irrespective of a change in party or leadership at the helm, the welfare schemes doled out by BRS will remain and the new party coming to power will also announce various beneficial schemes to retain popularity. Congress has also given six guarantees if voted to power. So, for the public, there is nothing to lose if a new government takes over. Whatever the outcome, it is going to be a close contest between BRS and Congress with BJP in the fray.