Hyderabad: Madigas constitute nearly 60% of the total Scheduled Caste population in Telangana and their vote becomes crucial in deciding the fortunes of candidates in some constituencies in the May 13 Lok Sabha elections.
However, Madigas are a divided house as far as supporting the major political parties in the fray in the ensuing polls. The main issue was failure of the leaders to get tickets to candidates from the Madiga community in some of the reserved constituencies.
Following in the footsteps of PM Narendra Modi, CM Revanth Reddy is leaving no stone unturned to woo Madigas by promising that the assembly will pass a resolution in favour of sub-categorisation of SCs. He promised that if a Congress govt is elected at the Centre, it would make an amendment for sub-categorisation.
While Madiga Reservation Porata Samithi (MRPS) led by Manda Krishna Madiga has already declared its support to the BJP, Madiga Dandora and other Madiga groups said they would support the Congress in the coming polls.
There are three SC reserved constituencies in Telangana. BRS, Congress and BJP gave tickets to Mala candidates in Peddapalli, while they fielded Madiga candidates in Warangal. In Nagarkurnool, Congress gave ticket to a Mala leader, while BJP and BRS opted for Madiga candidates. In effect, BJP and BRS gave two tickets to Madigas and one to Mala and Congress fielded two Malas and one Madiga.
There are four lakh Madiga voters in Peddapalli alone. Madiga Dandora leader Gajjela Kantham tried for a Congress ticket, but the grand old party gave the ticket to Gaddam Vamshi Krishna, a Mala. Kantham demanded ticket for a Madiga leader from Warangal.
“CM Revanth called us (Madiga Dandora leaders) and explained the reasons for not accommodating a Madiga from Peddapalli. He assured that Madigas will be given either an MLC or a Rajya Sabha seat in near future,” Kantham told TOI. Kantham said they would convince the Madigas to support the Congress. He said the Madigas do not believe in MRPS and BJP.
The BRS, on the other hand, is hopeful of getting support from both Madigas and Malas as it believes its Dalit Bandhu scheme would come in handy in the polls. Party chief K Chandrasekhar Rao has been raising the issue of release of payment to 1.3 lakh Dalit Bandhu beneficiaries, which was stalled by the Congress govt.
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