Community First

The assembly election in Telangana is going to be more caste-influenced than ever

- Rahul Devulapalli

A realtor in Hyderabad, 38-year-old Rami Reddy deals with plots in villages surrounding the city. Till recently, his WhatsApp display picture showed him wearing shades and a white khadi shirt. Now, it is a collage of five images of Congress working president A. Revanth Reddy. According to him, many of his friends in the Reddy community have also put Facebook and WhatsApp display pictures of Revanth, a popular leader who is contesting from Kodangal constituency in Mahabubnagar district. Flaunting your political allegiance on your social networking profile is a trend that is rapidly catching on in Telangana, ahead of the state elections.

Caste is known to be an integral part of Indian politics. In the undivided Andhra Pradesh, the Reddy community had been the backbone of the Congress and many of its leaders went on to become chief ministers of the state. There are Reddys in other political parties, too, but they are identified mostly with the Congress, which is why the party enjoys the support of a majority in the community.

Though top leaders in past elections were chosen or elevated based on their caste, the polarisation was not very evident among the voters, until now. The ground situation has made the upcoming elections very caste-centric. What seems to matter the most is not the candidate or the manifesto, but the caste associated with a particular party.

The Reddys were formerly chieftains and feudatories, and now constitute around 7 per cent of the population. They are known to be influential across business and political fields. Nowadays, it is not just ordinary voters from the Reddy community who are backing the Congress. According to sources, some leaders in the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) are, too.