Telangana elections: Picnics turn campaign meetings in Karthika masam

Politicians, especially MLAs, might not always be visible to the people during the five years the Assembly exists — four-and-a-half years in Telangana’s case.

KHAMMAM: Politicians, especially MLAs, might not always be visible to the people during the five years the Assembly exists — four-and-a-half years in Telangana’s case. But once the Assembly is dissolved, the same politicians are almost everywhere. 

So people in Khammam district shouldn’t be surprised to see candidates suddenly come up to them and canvass for votes while they are at a ‘Karthikamasam Vana Bhojanam’. Vana Bhojanams are traditional picnics/gatherings organised during the month of Karthika in the Hindu calendar. 

Since it is the month of Karthika, people frequently picnic with their families somewhere close to nature — ‘Vana’ in Telugu means ‘forest’. Some of these picnics can be quite large wherein scores of people from one community can come together to socialise with each other.  And how can politicians let the opportunity go to waste? Sometimes these candidates have a mole inside the gatherings to inform them about its whereabouts. 

According to candidates, dropping in on Vana Bhojanams is one of the easier ways of canvassing. “It is difficult to go door-to-door and talk to every voter individually. Meeting them at such gatherings is an easy and effective campaigning method,” a candidate tells Express. Over the past few days, groups such as employees of private firms and people belonging to a caste have been conducting vana bhojanams on a large scale. 

On Sunday, at one such gathering of people from Yadav and Kuruma castes in the town, TRS’ Khammam candidate Puvvada Ajay Kumar dropped in and appealed to them to vote for him. Like Kumar, other politicians such as former minister Tummala Nageshwara Rao and TRS’ Wyra candidate Banoth Madan Lal are also using such gatherings to their advantage. 

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The New Indian Express
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