Hyderabad: For the first time since it stormed to power in an undivided Andhra Pradesh within a year of its inception in 1982, the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) will not be contesting the Telangana assembly elections this year.
TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu conveyed his decision to the Telangana unit chief, Kasani Gnaneshwar, when the latter met him in the Rajahmundry central jail Sunday. A miffed Kasani, who had already drafted a list of 87 seats to contest in the state, resigned from the party Monday.
Party’s national spokesperson Kommareddy Pattabhiram confirmed to ThePrint that the TDP is refraining from the Telangana polls to focus on Andhra Pradesh polls that are six months away.
“We have a lot on our plate at present in Andhra Pradesh. It would have been a different scenario, but our leader was imprisoned in false cases and the party needed his vision and direction. It is better to concentrate on the mainstay. We are dealing with the might and onslaught of the ruling Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP),” said Kommareddy.
Naidu is out on interim bail on medical grounds for four weeks beginning Tuesday, corresponding with the Telangana poll campaign period, but TDP sources said that he is unlikely to change his decision.
Meanwhile, the TDP’s resolve to not contest in the Telangana assembly polls has left its staunch electorate — mainly the Kammas, pro-Naidu techies, some backward caste voters, and a section of Andhra settlers — to consider alternatives, even as they analyse factors such as Naidu’s arrest and seek to vote in a manner they believe would favour the TDP.
Kamma, a dominant agrarian community in Andhra Pradesh that Naidu belongs to, constitutes a significant voter base in Telangana, especially in the border Khammam region with 10 assembly segments. A large number of IT professionals in Cyberabad, the IT hub in Hyderabad, are of Andhra origin. The TDP was traditionally known as a party of the backward castes in Telangana.
Raghavendra Chowdary, a Kamma, said his initial reaction was to vote NOTA (None of the above) option on the EVM. A senior marketing executive with an agri-firm, Chowdary is a voter from a village in Medak assembly constituency. Located about 85 km north of Hyderabad, his village is home to several Kamma families.
“But it would be a waste, so I’ll vote for the Congress. I believe the BJP-BRS support has emboldened the YSRCP government to go after Naidu, accusing him in untrue cases and arresting him in a deplorable manner,” Chowdary said.
However, he has another reason to vote against the BJP and for the Congress.
“I believe Revanth Reddy would be of some help to Naidu if the Congress forms the government in the state now and/or at the Centre next year,” he said.
Reddy, the Telangana Congress chief and Malkajgiri Lok Sabha MP, was a two-time TDP MLA from Kodangal, from where he is contesting again having lost the seat to the BRS in 2018. Rival party leaders and detractors within the Congress indict him as Naidu’s man. He is an accused in the 2015 cash-for-vote scam that allegedly occurred during the Telangana MLC elections.
Chitturi Prabhakar, another person from the Kamma community, who runs a fertilisers business in Khammam town and deals with farmers from rural areas daily, says that the Congress has the edge in the 10 Khammam seats.
An estimated 60,000 of Khammam assembly constituency’s 3.15 lakh voters are Kammas, who are present in good numbers in neighboring constituencies like Wyra, Madhira, Sathupally, and Aswaraopeta.
The TDP fought the 2018 elections in alliance with the Congress. The two seats the TDP won in Telangana in 2018 are from Khammam region. The Congress got six, and one was won by an Independent. The lone TRS legislator here is the current state transport minister Puvvada Ajay Kumar, who was earlier a Congress MLA.
“The entry of former MP Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy and former minister Tummala Nageswara Rao (a senior Kamma leader) from the BRS has further strengthened the Congress. It is actually good that the TDP is not contesting as Kammas can now vote for the Congress to defeat the BRS,” said Prabhakar, apparently upset at Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao’s (KCR) rivalry with Naidu, fuelled by the buzz that KCR helped Jaganmohan Reddy in the 2019 Andhra assembly polls to defeat the latter.
Ponguleti and Tummala are Congress candidates from Palair and Khammam, respectively.
Prabhakar hoped there would be no Congress alliance with the Left, which is asking for two-three seats in Khammam, as “the Congress has chances of winning all 10 seats by going alone.”
In Hyderabad, Andhra-Rayalaseema origin IT professionals have good presence in about 10 out of over 20 seats in the capital area.
Several techies had expressed displeasure last month with the Telangana government over the police refusing permission to peaceful, democratic protests against Chandrababu’s arrest and minister K.T. Rama Rao’s comment that “what has Hyderabad/Telangana to do with Andhra politics?”
After various forms of protests — from car rallies, slogan-shouting in Metro against Chandrababu’s arrest to a rock concert “in gratitude of CBN”, Naidu admirers also took out bike rallies etc in the city welcoming the TDP chief who arrived in Hyderabad Wednesday for medical consultations and cataract surgery.
Prasanth K., an IT analyst with an MNC in Hyderabad, who credited Naidu for Hyderabad becoming a global IT hub, said he was inclined to vote for the Congress this time. “If there was a TDP alliance with the BJP or the Congress, I would have voted for the combine. But since the TDP is not contesting, I will go with the Congress.”
With an eye on the TDP’s vote banks, the BRS and the Congress contestants in Telangana have been making statements condemning Naidu’s arrest in the alleged skills project scam case.
“Apart from other reasons, the Kamma community voters would have sensed that the BRS prospects are down. The influential among the community — businessmen, realtors, movie makers — have a knack of leaning towards the winning side,” said Purushotham Reddy, a Hyderabad-based political scientist.
Meanwhile, Congress candidates are claiming the Andhra settlers’ support. “Added to the overall anti-incumbency, we can perceive a strong resentment among the Andhra settlers against KCR-BRS. Some are keenly watching the developments in Naidu’s case and can see that the masks of BJP-BRS-YSRCP are off,” Kota Neelima, the Congress candidate in Sanath Nagar constituency in Hyderabad with about 30 percent settler votes, said to ThePrint.
‘No support to anyone’
A senior TDP leader said their party has not extended support to anyone. Its ally Jana Sena had announced plans to contest Telangana polls and is reportedly in talks with the BJP.
“Our observation is that many TDP voters are favouring the Congress,” the leader, requesting anonymity, said.
Dasoju Sravan, a senior BRS leader, said Kammas and other Andhra settlers should consider the peaceful environment ensured by KCR for the middle classes and business groups in the state.
“Last time, when the Congress and the TDP were in an alliance, the BRS tally went up to 88 seats. Despite the regional acrimony during the statehood movement, KCR ensured a safe, secure environment for everyone across Telangana, including the Kammas. KCR has no personal enmity with Naidu despite the latter’s attempts to dethrone him through the note for vote episode during 2015 MLC polls, alliance with the Congress and his 2018 poll campaigns in Telangana,” Dasoju said to ThePrint.
In 2014, even post bifurcation, the TDP, identified as “Andhra party by the BRS”, won 15 seats in Telangana while ally BJP got five. In 2018 polls, when it went with its archrival Congress it could only win two while the latter got 19.
Though its citadel has been crumbling and its legislator-leaders are moving to greener pastures, the TDP can still boast of dedicated workers. These workers, though, are faced with a dilemma.
Boddolla Lakshmaiah from the backward Yadav community has been a TDP worker since his youth. During the Munugode bypoll this time last year, this correspondent had spotted him in his village Lachammagudem, whizzing on a scooter with both BJP and TDP flags, “since the local BJP leaders sought support”.
“The party chief’s decision (not to contest in assembly polls now) is unacceptable to us but what to do? Having fought the BRS, steadfast TDP activists like me will have to shift to the Congress as the BJP wave is gone. There are about 100 TDP activists in our locality and some have already moved on,” Lakshmaiah, who is in his 50s, told ThePrint.
The senior TDP leader quoted above said staying away from Telangana in the 2019 general elections and assembly polls now would hurt the party but added that “its base would not erode, our Kamma votes, techies support, committed cadre will not vanish”.
Could this be the end of the road for the TDP in Telangana? “The TDP coming back to power in the neighbouring AP would inevitably revive the party in Telangana. But when the party is facing a major survival challenge from the YSRCP, it is better to focus on AP,” said Chitturi Prabhakar.
(Edited by Smriti Sinha)