Telangana polls: Will KCR’s son KTR win or lose? Sircilla’s weavers hold the answer

Their lives have no doubt improved. But weavers, who dominate Telangana’s Sircilla constituency, still have complaints, and their vote will decide the fate of chief minister KCR’s son KT Rama Rao in the November 30 Assembly elections.

There was a time when weavers committed suicide in large numbers due to economic distress in Sircilla. Since the BRS took power in Telangana, that dire situation has passed.

But there is discontent over implementation of the Bathukamma Saree scheme and other special schemes launched for the empowerment of the community.

With increased cost of living, people's demand and expectations from the government have risen election after election.

"Under the Bathukamma Saree programme, we get work for only three months (in a year). Inflation has gone up. We are unable to pay the rent and buy essentials... We will vote for the party which will ensure us work for the entire year," powerloom worker Ramachandra Rampar told PTI.

Weavers’ constituency

The weavers' community called 'Padmashalis' form the majority of 2.43 lakh voters in Sircilla from where Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) working president and industries minister Rama Rao is contesting for a fourth consecutive time.

The support of the weavers is crucial for any candidate.

The Bathukamma Saree scheme was launched in 2017 to support the weavers and to present a small gift to the women. Under the scheme, powerloom workers get Rs 5,000 per week for 12 hours of daily shift.

Initially, there used to be work for six months. Now it has fallen to three months, rued Srinivas, another powerloom worker.

"It should be there for 7-8 months at least. If we get work for a full year, we will ensure his victory," he added.

Several powerloom workers complain they have to struggle to get the yarn subsidy and benefits from other welfare schemes.

There are Dalits in the weavers’ community but the Dalit Bandhu scheme is not reaching them. Even pension is not provided to the powerloom workers.

Weavers’ complaints

"The government had promised that powerloom workers would be made the owners but this has not been implemented in 10 years," said a powerloom worker, Venkatesh.

All this is giving enough ammunition to the Congress and BJP.

Congress candidate KK Mahender Reddy (62), who is contesting for a fourth time against KTR, is reaching out to the weavers with a promise to set up a yarn depot to solve major problems in Sircilla.

BJP’s Rani Rudrama Reddy is promising a powerloom cluster.

"Earlier, there used to be 37,000 powerlooms. Of this, 18,000 have been sold to scrap due to the government's wrong policy," he claimed.

Mahender Reddy, also an advocate, claimed that the government took away AAY cards given to weavers during the earlier Congress regime. Even plots allotted to the poor weavers are not registered yet.

"About 10,000 plots were given by the Congress. The BRS promised to register those plots but it was not done. That is affecting the people. So, they want to vote against him," he said.

KTR history

KTR won from Sircilla for the first time in 2009 by defeating independent candidate Mahender Reddy by just 171 votes. He retained the seat in 2014 by defeating Congress candidate Konduru Ravinder Rao by 53,000 votes. In 2018, KTR defeated Mahender Reddy (Congress) by over 89,000 votes. Now KTR is again facing Mahender Reddy from the Congress.

An independent candidate from the weavers' community, Lagisetty Srinivas, in also the contest besides the BJP candidate.

Srinivas was initially in BRS and later switched over to the BJP. After he was denied a ticket from BJP, he is contesting as an independent.

(With agency inputs)