The faction politics of the Palnadu region always presents an interesting phenomenon. When one party comes to power in Andhra Pradesh, sympathizers of the opposing party often flee their villages under pressure from the ruling party's leaders and cadre.
In the last five years, YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) leaders, such as Pinnelli Ramakrishna Reddy of Macherla and Kasu Mahesh Reddy of Gurajala, dominated the Palnadu region. Consequently, TDP sympathizers and voters had to desert their villages and seek refuge elsewhere.
Now that the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), along with its alliance partners, has come to power in Andhra Pradesh, it is the turn of YSR Congress Party sympathizers to flee their villages, fearing threats from TDP workers.
Reports indicate that hundreds of families in the Palnadu region, who supported the YSRCP over the last five years, have fled their villages and taken shelter in other districts.
Sources state that in the last month alone, as many as 1,500 families have left their villages and moved to Hyderabad, where they are now earning their livelihood.
For the next five years, they are unlikely to return to their villages due to the risk of factional violence.
Several villages in the Palnadu district are divided along political lines. While villages like Palwaigate and Tumrukota are divided, others such as Arigoppula, Bogila Veedu, Vyapakanpalli, and Chintapalli are dominated by the TDP.
Conversely, villages like Kandlakunta, K P Gudem, Rentala, Lakshmidevipuram, and Reddipalle are strongholds of the YSRCP. In these villages, there are people who have not entered polling stations for decades due to party workers capturing booths and rigging the polls.
Palnadu witnesses a unique kind of factionalism, driven by ego clashes and a desire to show dominance within the village or area. Politics gives them the power to assert their supremacy, and this dominance shifts with the party in power.
When a faction leader dominates a village by leveraging the political party in power, rival group leaders and their followers often desert the village for a few years. However, their properties remain untouched, and their lands lie fallow but are not encroached upon. Once their party returns to power, they come back to their villages and drive away their opponents.
After Jagan Mohan Reddy came to power in May 2019, hundreds of TDP leaders and their followers from Atmakur and surrounding villages in Palnadu deserted their homes and moved to makeshift camps in Guntur district. Some even relocated to Telangana, fearing attacks by the YSRCP cadre.
In the 2021 gram panchayat elections, YSRCP leaders were elected unopposed in 86 villages. A few months before the May 13 assembly elections this year, TDP leaders began returning to their native villages.
