As the election in Telangana draws closer, the nondescript Kamareddy constituency is hogging the limelight with Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao choosing it as his second seat after Gajwel. The election has further become the cynosure of all eyes with the entry of Telangana Congress president A Revanth Reddy as KCR’s main rival.
The poll narrative in this area – a hub of trade, textile and agro industries – will now be all about two archrivals settling their old feuds. The rivalry between the two leaders can be traced to the framing of Revanth along with then Andhra Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu of the TDP in a note-for-vote case in 2015. Reddy, who was then in the TDP, was subsequently jailed in connection with that case.
The KCR-Revanth Rivalry
As TDP receded from Telangana’s political landscape, Revanth crossed over to the Congress and had a sharp rise to become the head of the then tottering state party. His defection to Congress has obviously come with a baggage of vendetta that he has carried for long against KCR.
Chandrasekhar Rao, who by 2018 had emerged as the unquestioned leader in state politics, wished to politically finish Revanth off after the note-for-vote case went nowhere. It became a reality when Revanth tasted defeat in 2018 in Kodangal in Mahabubnagar district located in south Telangana. But by winning the 2019 Lok Sabha election from Malkajgiri, Revanth made a big comeback, which then paved the way for him being appointed TPCC president in 2021.
KCR had entrusted the task of Revanth’s defeat in 2018 to his trusted and resourceful strongman Patnam Mahendar Reddy. Mahendar Reddy, sitting legislator in Tandur, had then chosen to stay away from elections so that he could spend his full time for Revanth’s defeat in Kodangal. Mahender’s brother Patnam Narender Reddy won the Kodangal election from BRS, and 2023 will see a repeat of the Narender-Revanth fight in Kodangal.
To avenge KCR for his 2018 defeat, Revanth has now forayed into Kamareddy on the other side of Telangana, weaving an insider-outsider narrative given that KCR hails from Kamareddy. The BRS supremo, who looks rather jittery in Gajwel owing to the presence of BRS-turned-BJP leader Etela Rajender in the fray, finds himself in a better position, relatively, in Kamareddy as it continues to be a BRS stronghold.
Revanth’s Gamble And Challenges
For Revanth venturing into Kamareddy is risky given the fact that Congress won the seat only twice in the past four decades since 1983. All the time it went into the fold of non-Congress parties such as the TDP, the BRS and independents. Yet Revanth is hellbent upon defeating his bête noir.
The maze of politics in Telangana is unevenly structured: the northern region is KCR’s pocket borough while the south remains a Congress bastion. The unlikely prospects of Revanth gaining acceptance from his party’s rank and file in the North may also be a hiccup in realising his goal.
With the odds seemingly ranged against him in Kamareddy, former minister Mohammed Ali Shabbir of the Congress was reluctant to field himself against KCR despite its sizeable Muslim population (nearly 11 percent). Shabbir, who made his debut as a lawmaker from Kamareddy in 1989, could win only twice since then and he has opted for Nizamabad rural instead. But for Revanth, a frontrunner for the CM post from the Congress, a gain or loss in Kamareddy helps entrench his image as a David ranged against a Goliath.
KCR Struggles With Youth, Farmers
Kamareddy with its demographic mix of OBCs (52 percent) followed by Muslims, Dalits, Lambadas( Scheduled Tribe), and the rest upper-castes, is likely to bring into focus the restlessness of unemployed youth under KCR’s rule. Half a dozen unemployed youths are in the election fray as candidates.
They pitted themselves against KCR as a mark of protest against his government’s failure to keep his promise of creating jobs for the youth. Niyamakalu (jobs) was one of the three guiding principles on which KCR built a sustained statehood movement.
But he is accused of failing to fill 1.91 lakh jobs which remained vacant in different government departments during his 10-year tenure.The TSPSC (Telangana State Public Service Commission) tasked with filling job vacancies has not succeeded even in holding screening tests but ended up landing in a storm of controversies after leakage of question papers.
Meanwhile, the filing of nominations by a section of local farmers has highlighted their anguish at loss of vast swathes of fertile lands around Kamareddy town district headquarters to make way for rapid urban development.
Will Revanth take sweet revenge against KCR or end up losing both the seats he is contesting from? The triangular contest in Kamareddy with BJP fielding K Venkataramana Reddy could help in the division of anti-incumbency vote and give KCR the last laugh. The state election scheduled for November 30 will unfold the electoral puzzle in Kamareddy.
Gali Nagaraja is a senior journalist, formerly associated with The Hindu, The Times of India, and Hindustan Times for over three decades. Views are personal, and do not represent the stance of this publication.
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