Telangana: Caste polarisation gains traction before high-stakes by-election

HYDERABAD: With just over a fortnight to go for the high-stakes Munugode bypoll, politics in the key assembly segment is veering towards caste polarization with communal overtones failing to evoke passions. And the resignation of a key backward caste leader, Boora Narsaiah Goud, from TRS has spurred a caste tug-of-war.
Now, parties are making a last-ditch effort to reach out to influential backward communities — Gouds, Padmashalis and Yadavs — who account for more than one lakh of the total 2.41 lakh voters in Munugode.

Though TRS went on the defensive after the resignation of Narsaiah Goud, the party accelerated its outreach towards other community leaders. TRS enlisted help of a few local representatives of the community within 25 hours of Goud’s resignation. Minister G Jagadish Reddy was made pointsperson to rope in the BC community.
Padmashalis account for 40,000 votes in the assembly segment, Yadavs 35,000 and Gouds 30,000.
BJP recently invited Union minister Bhupender Yadav to interact with the Yadav community and lure them into the saffron fold. The ruling TRS was not far behind as it swiftly appointed a Padmashali community leader, Chinta Prabhakar, at the helm of Handloom Development Corporation. Congress too has planned to rope in backward caste leaders in its campaigns. Also, BJP has planned to interact with first-time voters. The women’s wing or Mahila Morchas of BJP has already begun approaching women voters.
BJP state chief Bandi Sanjay is likely to meet former MP Boora Narsaiah Goud, who resigned from TRS, in Hyderabad on Monday. Party sources said Goud will formally join BJP at a public meeting in Munugode. Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP national president JP Nadda are scheduled to join in the last lap of the campaign.
Meanwhile, BJP candidate K Raj Gopal Reddy claimed the ruling TRS was harassing BJP cadre and leaders. “If I am elected, I will get Rs 1,000 crore for development from the Centre for the assembly segment,” he said.