The ongoing war of nerves between the Telugu Desam party and YSR Congress party over reservations for Backward Classes in the State Assembly constituencies in the upcoming 2014 elections needs to be closely watched as both the parties have taken up this cause as a challenge.
Not withstanding the fact that out of 17 Chief Ministers in Andhra Pradesh in the last 56 years, as many as 11 were Reddys, followed by Kammas (3), Brahmin, Velama and Dalit (one each). Going by current indications from the ground, the political caste equations in the state emerging from the 2009 poll are not likely to be drastically different from what they were in the past. But in the changing political scenario with polarisation on caste basis, no political party can afford to ignore majority BC communities’ aspirations.
As both the Reddys and Kammas are likely to hold on to their vicious grip over state politics and Kapus making unsuccessful attempts to end this stranglehold in the last elections under the leadership of PRP Chief Chiranjeevi, the Backward Classes are left with no option but to wait till the 2014 election to pose a real challenge to the forward caste-led political parties and capture power from them.
Yet, when people of the state chose to keep their fingers crossed over the question of who will emerge as the true messiah of the BCs, TDP Chief Nara Chandrababu Naidu seems to have grabbed the first opportunity. His party took the lead and declared 33 percent reservations to BCs in the ensuing 2014 elections.
While the ruling Congress, which is embroiled in internal bickering, pooh-poohed Naidu’s claims and dubbed it as yet another ploy to hoodwink the BCs, the YSR Congress party seems to have taken a serious note of it. To counter the TDP’s claim, the YSRC was quick to react throwing a challenge to set apart 100-odd seats of the 294-member State Assembly to BCs.
Ironically, while there were no takers for the TDP’s bait, the AP Backward Classes Association headed by R Krishnaiah was quick to respond to welcome the YSRCP proposal. He said such an initiative will not only help redress the BCs’ problems, but also render justice to their representation as per their percentage in total population.
Vijayamma in her open challenge on behalf of her son and Kadapa MP Y S Jaganmohan Reddy, now in Chanchalguda prison in the disproportionate assets (DA) case, termed TDP’s BC Declaration was yet another ploy to mislead the electorate with the 2014 general elections fast approaching. She alleged that in 2009 elections, the TDP had fielded only 47 candidates as against her husband-led Congress gave tickets to 67 BC candidates.
Against this backdrop of both the Telugu Desam and YSR Congress parties vying with each other to woo the BCs, the 2014 elections likely to unveil new polarization of castes, which would raise the curtains for a new vote bank politics. (NSS).