Chandrababu Naidu winning over Jaganmohan Reddy

The dust slowly settles in Nandyal in Kurnool district after the high-voltage byelection. The outcome in favour of the ruling TDP becomes a research material for social scientists.

The political chemistry at work in the election reflected the sweeping changes in caste equations in the Rayalaseema region. The TDP’s inroads into the Reddy vote bank indicated the fact that the politically dominant Reddy community appears to be fast losing faith in the YS Jaganmohan Reddy’s YSRC as a viable alternative platform to the TDP.

TDP is making inroads into Reddy vote bank. The community appears to be fast losing faith in Jagan’s YSRC as a viable alternative platform to the TDP. Reddys were projected as villains of the piece as much as the Congress for the bifurcation. The community lost political shelter in AP with the downfall of Congress in the 2014 elections.

The wise leaders from the community like JC Diwakar Reddy sensed the trouble in advance, and jumped onto the TDP bandwagon and hooked onto power by all means. The changing equations on the demographic front are certain to impact the 2019 general elections. Scales are tilting heavily in favour of the ruling TDP

Reddys, although numerically a minority group, are considered to be a political class since the pre-Independence days in Rayalaseema. When the Reddys managed to have a sway over the Congress, the Kammas, a business community mainly based in the coastal Andhra region, found an alternative outlet in the Left politics until their caste icon and matinee idol NT Rama Rao floated the Telugu Desam Party in 1983. Since then both the communities vied for power by taking refuge in the Congress and the TDP till the bifurcation of the Andhra Pradesh in 2014.

Reddys were projected as villains of the piece as much as the Congress for the division. The Reddy community lost political shelter in both the Telangana and AP with the downfall of the Congress in the 2014 general elections. The wise leaders from the community like JC Diwakar Reddy in Anantapur sensed the hidden trouble in advance, jumped onto the TDP bandwagon in the run-up to the election and hooked onto power.

A major section in the community chose to sail with the YSRC, hoping its leader Jaganmohan Reddy would protect the community’s identity like his father late YS Rajasekhara Reddy in Rayalaseema region.

A good number of leaders from the community such as N. Amarnatha Reddy, Bhuma Nagi Reddy and Ch. Adinarayana Reddy who were elected to the Assembly from the YSRC defected to TDP. They were ready to play the second fiddle to the Kamma leadership in the TDP than sailing in the Jagan’s sinking boat. Nandyal MP SPY Reddy, also once confident of YSR, set the tread for defections from the YSRC by seeking asylum in TDP soon after his election.

In the churning process, Reddy leadership at the higher level managed to be relocated as MLAs and MPs. The caste men in the lower levels felt displaced due to the NTR’s landmark decision to allot 50 per cent of reservations in gram panchayats, mandal parishad and zilla parishad. With this, Reddys seem losing grip over the grassroots politics and started migrating to nearby urban areas by diversifying into realty, contract works and the other business activities.

The diversification results in their alienation from their traditional hold over land in villages. The lands owned by them have been left to the Boyas, Yadavas, Edigas and SCs for leased cultivation. Some sections in the BCs began emerging as an economic power with the help of 50 per cent quota in the local bodies and buying lands from the Reddys in districts like Kurnool and Anantapur.

A senior executive in a government department told this writer that BCs in his village Kadivella under Emmiganuru mandal in Dhone Assembly segment purchased more than 500 acres of lands from Reddys. “When you lose hold over land, you are obviously bound to lose grip over politics also at the grassroots level,” commented Prof E Venkatesh from Department of Political Science in University of Hyderabad.

The Kamma population, which is insignificant in Rayalaseema districts, undergoes demographic changes with a large number of farmers from the community from Amaravati have been buying lands in Kurnool and Anantapur districts with the `capital gains.’ “With the money they accrued by selling an acre of land in the capital region each of the Amaravati farmers is purchasing 20 acres of lands in areas like Penugonda, Anantapur and Kurnool areas,” said E Peddi Reddy of the Andhra Pradesh Rytu Sangham.

Kadapa is yet to be a preferred destination for the coastal farmers for want of proper road and rail connectivity, he said. Professor Venkatesh sees the Amaravati-Anantapur express highway, which is under progress, as a road to rapid changes in caste and demographic equations in Rayalaseema region.

The changing equations on the demographic front are certain to impact the 2019 general elections in Rayalaseema which remained as a political domain for Reddys for a long time. Scales are tilting heavily in favour of the ruling TDP.

By G nagaraja