How BJP is making inroads into North Telangana without much party effort

The counting of the votes for the two teachers’ constituencies and one graduates constituency took place on March 7. BJP’s Ch Anjireddy secured the MLC seat from the Medak-Nizamabad-Adilabad-Karimnagar graduates’ constituency, while Malka Komuraiah got elected as MLC from Medak-Nizamabad-Adilabad-Karimnagar teachers’ constituency.

The third seat in the Warangal-Khammam-Nalgonda teachers’ constituency was bagged by an independent candidate, Pingli Sripal Reddy.

The saffron party is particularly happy that the Congress, which fielded a candidate in only one Graduates’ constituency, lost despite heavy campaigning by chief minister A Revanth Reddy for the candidate.

Watch: Telangana LS results: Congress-BJP go toe-to-toe, setback for BRS

Formidable force in North Telangana

Notably, the BJP has three Lok Sabha MPs, seven MLAs, and two MLCs in North Telangana, which comprises districts such as Adilabad, Komaram Bheem Asifabad, Nirmal, Mancherial, Nizamabad, Jagtial, Peddapalli, Kamareddy, Rajanna Sircilla, and Karimnagar.

The BJP is clearly emerging as a formidable force in the region, which was once the bastion of the Naxals. Moreover, this silent transformation has taken place in the region though the BJP has a weak organisational presence in the region.

The post-2014 surge in the popularity of the BJP is attributed more to the sociological forces activated by the push for Hindutva rather than the organisational strength of the party. Before 2014, barring party veteran Ch Vidyasagar Rao, who won the Karimnagar Lok Sabha seat in 1998 and 1999 polls, the region had never elected a BJP candidate.

North Telangana, which shares a long border with Maharashtra and has tribal tracts and coal mines, boasts of a unique political geography in which backward castes like Munnuku Kapu, Padmashali and Goldsmith have considerable presence.

Between the 1970s and 1990s, the region had witnessed many agrarian and bidi workers’ movements organised by Naxal groups. The Singareni coal belt also saw militant trade union movements.

Tribal areas of the region were a safe haven for Naxal parties and universities and colleges were under the control of student-wings of the Marxist-Leninist parties. Towns and villages reverberated with the revolutionary songs of Gaddar.

Major transformation

In the past three decades, however, the region underwent such a transformation that none of these forces are visible now.

The BJP-controlled Maharashtra, especially Mumbai, became a major employment provider to the region’s youth and fanned their interest in Hindutva. Mumbai has also helped to spread the cult of Sivaji in the region.

According to Dr B Kesavulu Neta, president, Telangana Intellectual Forum, BJP’s influence is spreading without much effort from the party.

“Disillusionment with the Bharata Rashtra Samiti (BRS) and the old-style leadership of the Congress party have forced the voters, especially the youth, to search for an alternative. BJP has been able to strike an emotive chord with the people by deploying anti-Muslim rhetoric in the region which has many communally sensitive pockets,” Kesavulu, a practising psychiatrist from Nizamabad told The Federal.

Also read: Telangana: BJP sees red as Revanth claims Modi not backward class by birth

OBC factor

Dr Neta, who is also an OBC activist, admitted that OBCs too are gravitating towards BJP for several reasons.

An impression that BJP is promoting OBC leadership is gaining ground with the promotion of Bandi Sanjay Kumar (Union MoS Home), Dharmapuri Arvind (MP Nizamabad) and Eatala Rajender (MP Malkajgiri) as future leaders.

Dr Neta said that the members of Munnuru Kapu, a large OBC caste, are convinced that their leaders, Bandi Sanjay or Dharmapuri, do have the chance of becoming chief ministers in future, which is unthinkable in the BRS and Congress.

Further, another strong community, Mudiraj, feels that their leader Eatala Rajender will become the party's CM-candidate in the next Assembly election.

“Other OBC castes like padmashali and goldsmiths, who wear the sacred thread are positively disposed towards Hindutva politics. And the rich OBCs see plenty of room in the BJP unlike in BRS which are saturated with upper castes. So, Telangana is turning into a fertile ground for the rise of the BJP,” Dr Neta pointed out.

Disunity among Left parties

Kanneganti Ravi, convenor, Telangana People’s Joint Action Committee said that the disunity among the Revolutionary Left parties and the introduction of new economic and industrial policies prepared the ground for the rise of BJP in North Telangana.

“As long as the revolutionary Left Forces waged united movements for landless farmers, bidi workers and tribals, BJP did not have had any foothold in the region. But the introduction of economic reforms in the 1990s changed the political profile of the region," said Ravi.

Many public sector units were closed and the privatization of education led to mushrooming of private colleges, he added.

“An unprecedented repression was also unleashed and fake encounters were encouraged. These developments killed the vibrant trade union and students’ movements. Another key point is, all the landlords, who were driven out of the villages during the Naxal movements, started returning home and joining the BRS. Now, these wealthy landlords find the BJP which has been in power for three terms at the Centre much more attractive,” Ravi said.

Also read: Muslims under OBC: Ideological fight around Telangana caste survey

Dormant Hindu sentiments

RSS Pracharak P Venugopal Reddy, meanwhile, felt that sociologically the region, which witnessed brutal repression during the Nizam’s rule, is deeply Hindu and these sentiments had been dormant for decades.

In his view, this is coming to the fore backed by factors like the spread of awareness about Hindu culture, failure of BRS, Rahul Gandhi’s uninspiring leadership, provocative minority politics, and disappearance of the Left Movement etc.

According to Reddy, this can be the real reason behind the growth of BJP in North Telangana.

“A minor provocation from Muslim groups is enough to unite the Hindus in the region. The communal disturbances in Nirmal and Bhainsa played a key role in uniting the entire Hindu community in Telangana,” he said.

Maharashtra politics

Reddy, who was also a founding member of the Ekalavya Foundation, an RSS wing, did not rule out the influence of Maharashtra politics in the region.

“Two districts, Nizamabad and Adilabad, which have close contacts with Maharashtra, have favoured BJP candidates in the Lok Sabha elections,” he said, adding that people are looking at BJP as a natural alternative in the state.