Hyderabad, June 30: Followers of APCC president D Srinivas in the Nizambad (Urban) constituency have begun stumping for their leader.
In their anxiety to make sure that he wins this time, they have launched a campagin — albeit by word of mouth — that if he clinches the seat the chief ministership would surely be his for the asking.
But such propaganda may well boomerang, given the caste composition of the constituency.
While the BCs are indeed in the majority, followed by Muslims and Padmashalis, there is a not insignificant number — 18,000 to 20,000 — of Vysyas, the community to which incumbent Chief Minister Rosaiah belongs.
In the last elections in 2009, Srinivas lost in a communally surcharged atmosphere because of his remark that he would cut off the finger of anyone who pointed a finger against Muslims. The victor, Y Lakshminarayana of the BJP, was a rookie in politics.
This time the BJP is projecting Lakshminarayana as a hero who sacrificed his seat for the cause of Telangana.
The Congress, for its part, is claiming that DS is the “only real Telangana champion’’ as he has been articulating the cause since 2001 and been presenting arguments in its favour to the Congress high command.
As for the “DS for CM” campaign, the APCC president seems to be doing nothing to discouraged it. In fact, he has already declared that if he wins from Nizamabad (Urban) he will become “a big man in the State’’.
In the triangular fight, every vote will count, and those of the Vysyas would be vital. Congress leaders have voiced confidence that the entire community would support DS.
“City Congress president A Purushotham belongs to the Vysya community and several top businessmen and rice-millers association representatives have joined the party. All this bodes well,” says a Congress leader from Nizamabad.
–Agencies