Hyderabad: “Sharing the common DNA of pariwarwad (dynasty rule), bhrashtachar (corruption) and tushtikaran (appeasement)”, the Congress and the incumbent Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) will never allow a backward caste (BC) person to become the chief minister in Telangana, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in the poll-bound state Tuesday.
Speaking at a rally — ‘BC Atma Gourava (self-respect) Sabha’ — at Hyderabad’s Lal Bahadur (LB) Shastri Stadium, Modi recalled the support and blessings he received from the people of Telangana in 2013 when he was the Gujarat CM. He expressed the hope that the same support would be extended to a BC BJP leader aiming to become the next CM of Telangana in 2024.
Modi was referring to the LB stadium rally in August of 2013, from where he launched his 2014 campaign to connect with the people and scout for allies.
The PM’s speech reinforced Home Minister Amit Shah’s poll pitch that a BC would be made the CM if the party came to power in the state. Shah had made the promise while speaking at the party’s Jana Garjana Sabha at Suryapet on 27 October.
The BJP is raising the ‘BC for CM’ banner at a time when the Congress and other opposition parties are demanding a caste census from the Centre and promising to do so wherever they come to power.
As a part of his campaign in Telangana, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had, last month, assured a caste census in the state if his party forms the government. He said that a revelation of the proportion of SC, ST, minorities and OBCs would enable equitable budget allocations and opportunities.
There are 134 BC communities in the state which together constitute an estimated over 50 percent of the Telangana population.
“It has to be seen if the BJP’s BC CM pitch makes a connection with the electorate. But what explanation does the party or the PM have for the removal of Bandi Sanjay Kumar, a BC, from the Telangana BJP chief post ahead of polls?” senior political analyst Bhandaru Srinivasa Rao said to ThePrint.
The BJP has so far announced 100 candidates for the 119 Telangana assembly seats going to polls on 30 November.
Out of the 19 pending, the BJP is offering around nine seats to partner Jana Sena. The JSP announced its candidates in eight seats Tuesday night.
JSP chief Pawan Kalyan shared the dais with Modi in Hyderabad Tuesday. “For realising the 2047 vision to make India a superpower, aur ek baar Modiji ko aana chahiye (Modi should get third term as PM),” Kalyan said while assuring the BJP of total support in the polls.
Also read: Contesting 2 seats, KCR faces stiff poll battle — Telangana Congress chief Revanth, ex-aide Eatala
BJP’s Backward Caste plank
Modi said that his cabinet has 27 ministers from the OBC communities, BJP has 85 OBC MPs and that the party has the track record of placing leaders from SC, ST, BC and minority sections in top constitutional positions, citing the examples of President Droupadi Murmu, former presidents Ram Nath Kovind and A.P.J. Abdul Kalam; P.A. Sangma (whose candidature for speaker and president posts was supported by the BJP); and G.M.C. Balayogi for Lok Sabha Speaker.
“The BJP made me, an OBC, the Prime Minister,” Modi said while accusing the BRS of neglecting the BCs and their aspirations.
A BC leader has never occupied the CMs chair in the state, even in the unified Andhra Pradesh. Since its formation in June 2014, Telangana’s CM post has been filled in by K. Chandrashekhar Rao (KCR), who is a forward caste Velama, a landlord community.
During the statehood agitation, KCR’s promise was to make a Dalit the first CM of Telangana, which the BJP and Congress often remind the public.
BJP’s BC faces in Telangana
Since the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) has ceded ground here, choosing sit out these elections, the BC party tag has largely remained unclaimed here.
The Telangana BJP has several prominent BC faces, seen as strong contenders to the CM’s post.
Bandi Sanjay Kumar, the firebrand ex-state BJP chief and Karimnagar MP, is from the Munnuru Kapu community categorised as backward. Eatala Rajender, the party’s election management committee chairman, is from the BC Mudiraj community. Both are in the assembly election fray.
The party’s national OBC morcha chief K. Laxman, a Rajya Sabha MP, is also an important face.
In contrast, most of the top leaders in the Telangana Congress are from the influential, forward caste Reddys — be it TPCC chief Revanth Reddy, former chief Uttam Kumar Reddy, or senior MP Komatireddy Venkat Reddy.
The BJP’s ‘BC for CM’ voter connect promise comes at a time when its electoral prospects have dipped after the highs it achieved with the Dubbaka, Huzurabad bypoll wins and the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) election of 2020 where it made substantial gains. Bandi was replaced by Union minister G. Kishan Reddy as the Telangana BJP chief in July, a move seen as having deflated the party’s momentum here.
In an apparent bid to allay concerns among the state unit leaders who feel the BJP chances were also dented as chief minister KCR’s daughter and legislator K. Kavitha was not arrested by the CBI/ED in the alleged Delhi liquor policy case, the PM alleged that BRS’s graft has reached Delhi and assured Tuesday that “there would be action in corruption cases”. “Ye Modi ki guarantee hai (This is Modi’s guarantee),” he said.
The Congress is the BRS’s C team, said Modi while accusing the KCR government of becoming anti-people.
(Edited by Smriti Sinha)
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