All the major political parties in Telangana are eyeing a larger share of the Dalit pie, which can make or mar their prospects.
G Kishan Reddy, A Revanth Reddy, K Chandrashekar Rao.
While Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s attack on Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao occupied headlines during his recent visit to Telangana, a low-key but high-impact meeting may have set the ball rolling on BJP’s Dalit outreach in the poll-bound state.
The BJP made its first move to get the Madiga community — belonging to the Scheduled Castes (SCs) — on its side when Prime Minister Narendra Modi granted the Madiga Reservation Porata Samiti founder-president Manda Krishna Madiga an audience during his recent visit.
While Modi met him to enlist the Madigas’ support, the community leader exhorted him to take steps to categorise SCs and to implement reservations for them.
The Madiga leader has been making this demand for quite a long time.
According to Manda Krishna Madiga, in the absence of caste-wise reservations among the SCs in proportion to the population, the Mala community was walking away with the lion’s share of the benefits, leaving the Madigas, Rellis, and others high and dry.
In fact, the issue has driven a wedge between the Madigas and the Malas.
It may be noted that the decision to implement internal reservation for SC communities was cited as one of the reasons for BJP’s poll debacle in the recently-held Karnataka Assembly elections. Given the BJP’s bitter experience, the topic continues to be a contentious one for any party.
The prime minister might have given a warm hug to the Madigas because they are an electoral force in Telangana. But it could well influence the community, which might read the overture as an indication that the BJP, known as the upper-caste party, was trying to bridge the gap with the SCs.
In Telangana, according to the 2011 census, the SC population was 54,32,680, of whom Madigas comprised 32,33,642 and Malas accounted for 15,27,143.
As no census has been done afterwards, the Telangana government did a comprehensive family survey in 2014, which put the Dalits’ population at 75 lakh, which is about 18 percent of the total population of the state.
In fact, all the major political parties in Telangana are eyeing a larger share of the Dalit pie in the run-up to the Assembly elections in December.
As many as 19 seats in the state Assembly are reserved for SCs and 12 for STs, while three Lok Sabha seats are for SCs and two are for STs. The total number of Assembly seats is 119 and that of the Lok Sabha in the state is 17.
As there seemed to be an imperceptible but unmistakable shift of the Dalits towards the Congress and the BJP, BRS supremo and Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao had initiated several measures to plug the leak.
When Dalits began expressing unhappiness over Rythu Bandhu, which benefited the “landed gentry” in villages at whose hands they had suffered for decades, KCR, who belongs to a dominant community, sought to please them by launching Dalit Bandhu.
Under the scheme, eligible beneficiaries would get an assistance of ₹10 lakh each to start small businesses.
After the Assembly elections in 2014, KCR’s credibility had taken a beating when he conveniently forgot his promise of making a Dalit the chief minister of Telangana. He also put on the back burner his promise of providing three acres of land to each Dalit family.
As there was no party to challenge the BRS till the last two years, KCR had not thought much about the need to woo the Dalits. But over time, the BJP began gaining ground, which worked as a wake-up call for him.
Sensing the lurking danger, he immediately hastened the construction of a 125-ft tall statue of BR Ambedkar and inaugurated it on his 132nd birth anniversary on 14 April, amid much fanfare.
Earlier, in a preemptive move aimed at the Dalit voters, he had named the new Telangana Secretariat, which was still under construction, after Dr BR Ambedkar.
Then, to put the BJP on the mat, he passed a resolution in the Assembly asking the Union government to name the new Parliament building after Ambedkar as naming the secretariat after the founding father of the Constitution gave him the necessary moral heft to make such a demand.
When BRS MLAs became greedy and started demanding a cut in the ₹10 lakh financial assistance to Dalit Bandhu beneficiaries, KCR warned them in clear terms that he would throw them out of the party if they did not mend their ways.
This, according to analysts, he did to drive home the point that he, as the leader of the BRS, would stand with the Dalits, even if his MLAs did not.
Now, after the rise of Congress in Karnataka, the fortunes of the grand old party too seem to have improved, and Dalits seem to be looking at it with growing interest.
The association of the Dalits with the Congress is as old as the hills. The name of Indira Gandhi still rings a bell in old timers among the Dalits.
There used to exist an unseen bond between them and the Congress, but with the party coming a cropper after the division of united Andhra Pradesh in 2014, the Dalit votes seemed to have moved closer to the BRS.
As the prospects are slowly improving for the Congress, there are also unobtrusive methods to split the Dalit vote bank and thus harm the grand old party’s interests.
According to analysts, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), which has now no base in its home state of Uttar Pradesh, is showing an interest in Telangana.
Former IPS Officer RS Praveen Kumar, who is spearheading the party in the state, is being seen as one propped up to split the Dalit votes.
Aware of the possible split in the Dalit votes, the Congress is now trying to come up with a list of what it intends to do for them in Telangana.
Though the exercise is still in progress, the party’s biggies, including Telangana-in-charge Manikrao Thakre, are showing an interest in coming out with an attractive manifesto for Dalits.
The leaders believe that if they get the right manifesto, Dalits would surely move towards the Congress as it is, anyway, like a home away from home for them.
Already the BJP has been nibbling at the Dalit vote bank which also should be a cause for worry for the Congress.
The saffron party wants to shed the image that it is an upper caste party and wants to worm its way into the hearts of the Dalits and BCs.
Accordingly, former BJP state president Bandi Sanjay had interactions during his padayatra in the recent past with weaker sections and STs. The party had Dalit athidhyam, where leaders would dine with Dalit families to endear themselves to them
The Congress plans to enlist Dalits’ support by developing programmes for their economic empowerment, education, land rights and business opportunities.
The grand old party is also trying to come up with strategies that could counter the attempts of others to undercut its Dalit vote bank in Telangana.
The party hopes to have some rub-off effect from Karnataka where Dalits seem to have played a role in ensuring a resounding victory for the Congress under the leadership of Dalit leader Mallikarjun Kharge.
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