Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy, who left the Congress necessitating a bypoll last year, is back as the candidate of the grand-old party in Munugode.
Ground report: Munugode Assembly constituency.
With the Telangana Assembly elections 2023 just days away, South First is bringing you ground reports from key constituencies. This series brings you voices from the ground, the mood of the voters, and issues that matter — as well as those that don’t.
Munugode is not far from Hyderabad, the capital of Telangana. The distance could be covered in around two hours. However, they are worlds apart.
South First caught up with Anil Katta one morning in Munugode town. The restive man was pacing up and down near his tractor, trying to reach someone over the phone. He was to get a call, asking him to continue working on a field, which he had been ploughing for the past few days.
The call hadn’t come through, and he looked desperate. Meanwhile, his counterparts in Hyderabad, some 85 km away, would have started working.
His parents had educated him so that he would not take up the family tradition of farming. Yet, on that day, he was waiting for a call, asking him to work in a field.
“My parents are both farmers and I have applied for group exams but they got cancelled twice. I have lost hope,” he fumed while talking to South First.
Anil on his tractor in Munugode. (Deepika Pasham/ South First)
“The ministers ask how many people could they employ in the government sector. The scenario for the rural population is different. We, too, aspire for a government job, but we lack the facilities, like coaching centres or proper training grounds that the cities have. We have to clear the physical test of running 1,600 metres and the long jump to be recruited as police constables. Where do we practise,” he asked.
Training in the fields could injure him — or worse, leave him with a fractured limb.
“I have also applied for group exams, But when will they hold the exams in Telangana? I have decided to help my family, and stopped dreaming of getting a government job,” he said.
Anil was one among many indignant youngsters, both male and female, in rural Telangana, as South First has found while traversing the state four our Ground Reports.
He then threw a challenge at the politicians seeking votes in the Munugode Assembly constituency. “Will any politician conduct a survey to find out how many girls are dropping out of studies just because Munugode doesn’t have a government-run degree college,” Anil dared.
“Women, who want to study and have a career, are forced to get married. Some of them struggle to apply for the Degree Online Services, Telangana (DOST), but not all can afford it if they are allotted a private institution,” he added, wildly gesticulating.
The phone in his right hand rang. He paused to look at the display, and his face lit up. His high-pitched voice mellowed down as he attended the call. “I have to go,” he said, almost whispering, and rode away on the tractor. Anil had been called for work.
Munugode Assembly constituency. (Click on the image to enlarge)
Anil’s words kept playing in the mind, as if in a loop, long after he had left. He must now be ploughing someone else’s field.
The Congress’ Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy with his son. (krg_reddy/Twitter)
Munugode is going to the poll for the second time in a little over a year. A bypoll was held in November 2022, after the sitting MLA, Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy of the Congress resigned from the party and joined the BJP.
Kusukuntla Prabhakar Reddy of the TRS (now BRS) won the by-election, defeating his nearest rival Komatireddy with a majority of more than 10,000 votes.
Komatireddy, who had left the Congress in August 2022 saying, “I am a man of honour,” and “I have moral values and stay away from opportunistic politics,” made a ghar wapsi a month ahead of the Assembly polls after his name was excluded from the BJP’s first list of candidates.
Prabhakar Reddy and Komatireddy are in the fray now as the BRS and Congress candidates, respectively. The BJP has fielded Chelamalla Krishna Reddy as its candidate.
Interestingly, Palvai Sravanthi, who contested the bypoll on a Congress ticket and lost the deposit, joined the BRS on 12 November. “I left the Congress as per my father (veteran Congress leader Palvai Govardhan Reddy)’s words that I should not stay for a minute without respect,” she said while joining the BRS.
Amidst all the apparent political chicanery, educated youngers like Anil, are forced to till, burying their aspirations.
Incidentally, Komatireddy’s switching allegiances — back and forth — was so fast that many in the constituency were unaware that he was back in the Congress. This may cause some confusion on 30 November, the date of polling, and the BJP and the Congress may inadvertently lose or gain some votes.
Though the BSP had fielded Andoju Shankara Chary in Munugode, he withdrew his nomination.
In the 2014 Assembly election, Prabhakar Reddy rode on the Telangana wave and won comfortably, securing a vote share of 38.13 percent. However, the tide turned in favour of the Congress in 2018, when Komatireddy romped home with 96,961 votes, garnering 50.51 percent of the total vote share.
In the 2022 bypoll, the TRS won 97,006 votes, while the BJP came second with 86,697 votes, and the Congress ended up with 23,906 votes. The Left parties, the CPI(M) and the CPI, had supported the TRS in the bypoll.
The Congress now has the support of the CPI, while the CPI(M) has fielded Donuri Narsireddy after its seat-sharing talks with the Congress failed.
CPI leader and former MLA (2004-2009) Palla Venkat Reddy said development has been evading Munugode. “During my term, I laid the foundation for a degree college but the building construction is yet to start,” he said.
At Ramakrishnapuram, Sunitha P was sitting on the concrete floor with a few other women, segregating the final lot of cotton, the major cultivation in the constituency.
Sunitha separating cotton (Deepika Pasham/South First)
“Our occupation is farming and we cultivate cotton. We are dependent on rain since we cannot afford a water pump set. The worry is, the Cotton Corporation of India …,” she stopped abruptly. Even her nimble fingers that were separating the seeds remained still.
“It is the Cotton Corporation of India, isn’t it,” she asked South First. “It is the Cotton Corporation of India,” she nodded to herself in approval and went back to work.
She was being paid ₹6,620 per quintal for short-staple, and ₹7,020 for long-staple cotton. “This is not enough, since the middlemen take commission too. It is difficult to meet the expenses, including the children’s educational needs,” she said.
Two elderly women in her family were not getting any welfare pensions, Sunitha claimed.
Laxminarayana has been running a mess in Munugode town and has plans to relocate it elsewhere. He doesn’t have enough customers for a profitable business,
Educated people here are hoping that some companies would open here. Not all can shift to Hyderabad. The government should bring in investors,” Laxminarayana told South First.
He felt the neighboring Chotuppal Mandal has been witnessing fast-paced development activities.
Sunitha said she would vote for KCR. “I am receiving the Rythu Bandhu and Manjeerawater,” she justified.
Another woman said her husband would vote for the BRS. “But I will stand with the Hand (Congress),” she beamed.
The voters said double roads were laid after the by-election. The constituency has a 100-bed hospital and a revenue division office has been opened. Bhagiratha Water (a drinking water project), too, has reached the constituency.
Saketh Vujjuni, a photographer from Munugode but living in Hyderabad, said the Padmshalis would decide the outcome of the polls. “The Padmashali caste is the decision-maker in the polls, and the Gouds would decide the margin,” he told South First.
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