With three major parties wooing them for their votes in the Assembly elections, Seemandhra electors settled in Telangana are poised to weigh their options before exercising their franchise on 30th November.
Published Date – 07:53 PM, Sat – 25 November 23
Hyderabad: With three major parties wooing them for their votes in the Assembly elections, Seemandhra electors settled in Telangana are poised to weigh their options before exercising their franchise on 30th November. The Congress is quite enthusiastic about their support, claiming that they would vote for the party in large numbers since they are “unhappy” about the arrest of TDP leader N Chandrababu Naidu in scams in Andhra Pradesh. The BJP is equally sure of getting the votes of Seemandhra electors as the saffron party has aligned with Jana Sena of Pawan Kalyan in these polls. The BRS, on its part, is confident of retaining the confidence of a large section of Seemandhra voters as they had supported the pink party in the earlier elections to Assembly, Lok Sabha and the local bodies.
Seemandhra residents in Telangana are not a monolithic block and they reflect the socio-economic and political diversity of their ‘native state’ (residuary AP). In fact, there are three distinct categories of Seemandhra residents who settled in Telangana in different spells of time. In Nizamabad and Adilabad districts, the first “settlers” from Andhra were “invited” by the Seventh Nizam of Hyderabad, Mir Osman Ali Khan, when Nizam Sagar dam, Alisagar and other irrigation projects were constructed. The Nizam assigned them lands to take up cultivation of paddy and sugarcane in this fertile area.
After formation of (united) AP State in 1956 with the merger of then Andhra State and Telangana region of erstwhile Hyderabad State, there was a steady increase in the number of people from Seemandhra region in Khammam, Nalgonda and Mahbubnagar districts bordering the Coastal and Rayalaseema districts. Hyderabad, as the capital and growth engine of the new State, attracted hordes of people from Seemandhra in pursuit of government, public sector and private jobs and self-employment. Over the years, Seemandhra residents in Telangana no longer remained “settlers” as several generations have been born and brought up here. They contributed and benefited from the socio-economic boom in Telangana over the decades.
Today, Seemandhra voters account for 15 percent of the total electorate in Telangana, spread across the State, more particularly in about 60 Assembly constituencies in a dozen districts–Khammam, Bhadradri, Suryapet, Nalgonda, Wanaparthy, Gadwal, Nagarkurnool, Hyderabad, Medchal, Rangareddy, Sangareddy, Nizamabad and Asifabad districts. No single caste group dominates the Seemandhra residents in this region. Kammas, Reddys, Kshatriyas, Kapus, Balijas, Telagas, Brahmins as well as Muslims and Christians from Coastal and Rayalaseema districts constitute the different groups residing in Telangana.
Before the bifurcation of AP and formation of Telangana State, these groups used to vote as per their preferences for TDP, Congress, BJP, CPI, CPM and other parties. In the simultaneous Assembly and Lok Sabha elections held in April 2014 just before the actual bifurcation of AP, most of the Seemandhra residents, who were apprehensive about their “future” in Telangana, had voted for “Andhra” parties—TDP, YSRCP, Lok Satta Party, while some sections favoured Congress and TRS. This explains how TDP-BJP alliance had bagged 20 Assembly seats and two Lok Sabha seats in Telangana. YSRCP won one Lok Sabha seat and three assembly seats in Khammam district.
However, as they realized that their apprehensions were unfounded and they got all the opportunities on par with the other sections of people in Telangana State, a large number of Seemandhra residents voted for TRS in the 2018 Assembly elections, Lok Sabha polls in 2019 and the local bodies polls to panchayat raj institutions in 2019 and 2020. Even when the TDP contested the 2018 assembly polls as part of “Maha Kutami” with the Congress, Seemandhra voters spurned the yellow party which secured only two seats. The TDP did not contest 2019 Lok Sabha polls after its Maha Kutami fiasco. YSRCP withdrew from the political scene of Telangana soon after 2014 as YS Jaganmohan Reddy focused his energies on AP.
With an eye on Telangana political sweepstakes, YS Sharmila launched YSR Telangana Party, as YSRCP had folded up and TDP got considerably weakened with its leaders and cadres joining BRS. After claiming that the TDP would contest the Assembly elections now, the party withdrew at the last-minute, on the specious plea that it was in no mood in the wake of TDP boss N Chandrababu Naidu’s arrest in an alleged scam in September this year.
This has prompted the Congress leaders to unleash their propaganda narrative that Seemandhra residents will cast their votes in favour of their party. Understandably, the supporters of TDP were in a state of shock but the Chandrababu episode was enacted by YS Jagan to settle scores with his bête noire in AP, apparently with the support of BJP. Sharmila, who unsuccessfully tried to merge her party with the Congress and secure the party tickets for her and some supporters, threatened to contest all the 119 seats against the Congress but her threat ended in a whimper.
The BJP, on its part, is contesting the Assembly polls in alliance with Jana Sena Party. After announcing the list of 32 seats that his party sought to contest, JSP leader Pawan Kalyan opted to go with BJP and settled for eight seats. What would the BJP gain from this alliance is anybody’s guess. But many people would not know that Jana Sena had, in fact, contested in seven constituencies in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections in Telangana and secured a measly 85,781 votes—not even half-a-percent of the total votes.
– Syed Amin Jafri
