Even a small child from Andhra is not favorably disposed towards Telangana or the TRS in particular.
It is not the matter of bifurcation alone but rather the vitriolic language used by KCR against the Andhras that is the reason for this.
But four years down the line, Andhras are increasingly irritated at the opportunistic policies of Chandrababu Naidu that has seen him threaten to imprison those people who clamour for SCS. This was when he was part of the NDA.
Naidu had then said, “Is SCS a Sanjeevani? The ‘package is much better. Anyone who opposes me will be jailed.”
The same Naidu then started a ‘Dharma Porata Deeksha’ against the NDA for SCS after parting ways with them.
And finally, the unkindest cut of all: entering into an alliance with the Congress Party which had divided the State! He has not fulfilled a single of his election promises either!
As long as Harikrishna was alive, Naidu completely ignored him as NTR was perceived as a threat to Lokesh but the same Naidu looked to cash in on the unfortunate demise of Harikrishna by fielding his daughter Suhasini in the Kukatpally constituency.
Poor Suhasini is an absolute greenhorn with no knowledge of politics and was merely used as a pawn by the TDP and yellow media.
But resentment among the Andhras against Naidu, and by association his community, has gone to such an extreme that other Andhra communities put their anti-Telangana feeling behind them to prevent Naidu from winning anywhere.
In Kukatpally, there are around 62,000 people from Kapu community who threw their weight behind KCR.
Prior to the election, Kapu leader Miryala Raghava Rao of Srikrishnadeva Raya Association said, “We will be holding a large public meeting on November 30 of our community in which representatives from Kukatpally, Serilingampally, Qutubullapur, Patancheru and Sanathnagar, where the number of Seemandhra residents is high, will be participating and extending support to caretaker minister KT Rama Rao.”
He further added, “The constituencies are being portrayed as dominated by citizens of Andhra Pradesh, but there are people from other states as well. Our community of Kapus, Balijas, Turpu and Munnuru Kapus will extend support to the TRS because there have been no law and order issues in the past four-and-a-half years. Even AP residents who own lands in Telangana were beneficiaries of the Rythu Bandhu scheme.”
Another Kapu leader Adusumilli Venkateswar Rao had said, “Because there are no jobs in AP, people are returning to Hyderabad because of the safe environment created by the TRS government. Even though Telangana leaders are criticising one leader of AP — TD president and AP Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu — it was being portrayed as if they are against all Andhra people. Naidu had AP-origin people in limbo by shifting base to Vijayawada. We cannot forget how they (Congress and TD) used leaders like Chiranjeevi and Pawan Kalyan. In Kukatpally, they are targeting only one caste, but people of Seemandhra will block the minds of those leaders.”
And it is not the Kapu community alone that backed KCR. The Reddys and Muslims of Seemandhra in Kukatpally and surrounding areas also supported TRS.
As usual, for the Andhras, it is caste that has taken precedence over everything else although their reasons might sound justified. But Naidu is equally to blame for the current state of affairs.
Had he really focused on developing Andhra Pradesh instead of enriching his community with real-estate dreams like Amaravati and other Singapore-backed scams, people would have stood by him. They gave him a solid opportunity in 2014 and he has let everyone down badly.
Added to this, the political atmosphere of Andhra Pradesh spiraled over to Hyderabad and TDP rivals voted against the Party in Kukatpally and Serilingampally.
In 2014, all Andhra people voted united and voted for the TDP but in 2018, that unity is gone.
Kapus voted for TRS because they see TDP as a rival to their Jana Sena in AP and KTR also played a master stroke by saying he wished Pawan Kalyan becomes the CM of AP.
The Kshatriya community has always been pro-TRS since bifurcation and the Reddys would never vote for TDP anyway.
All these factors combined have decimated the TDP in its stronghold of Kukatpally and Serilingampally.
Written By Kiran Sharma
(The author is a freelance writer. Views are personal)
