HYDERABAD: At a dilapidated bus stand in Kosgi Mandal of Vikarabad district, the famous Mumbai slang of Hindi spoken by Venkatesh, a young man in his twenties minding a small store selling snacks, stands out amidst Telugu speaking populace.
He says that he was born and brought up in Mumbai and is here for a break. Decades ago, with agricultural activities hard hit by lack of irrigation facilities, and left with no other source of income, his father was forced to migrate from Kosgi to Mumbai to work as a construction worker. This is not necessarily the story of Venkatesh’s father alone, but of thousands who migrated, years ago, from the region to other parts of the country seeking greener pastures. Fast forward to 2018 and there is hardly any change in the conditions.
In fact, with similar situation prevailing in the region, people migrate not just from Kosgi but also from other four mandals — Bomraspet, Kodangal, Doulatabad and Maddur that make up the Kodangal constituency—to places like Pune and Mumbai to find work.
In this coming Assembly elections, for Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) and Congress-led Grand Alliance, Kodangal constituency has become a symbol of prestige that both want to win at any cost. For people of one of the most backward constituencies, though, the elections are just a fading ray of hope that their age-old woes would be addressed by a winning candidate.
Widening of roads, installation of street lights, being available for anyone in need (but through his family members), spending money out of pocket for the sake of constituency development, bringing in GAIL to develop school building through CSR and raising the less-known Kodangal constituency to State-level politics are some of the achievements the supporters of the two-time MLA and firebrand Congress working president, A Revanth Reddy credit to their leader.
However, decades of under-development and the TRS, which has pitched MLC from Rangareddy district, P Narender Reddy — brother of former transport minister P Mahender Reddy —using all tactics in the book to woo Congress party workers into its camp, throws a challenge at Revanth Reddy, as Kodangal never saw any politician win the constituency
Major issues
The demand for a regular source of water for irrigation has remained unfulfilled for people of this constituency since 1952 election. Besta Balraj, who owns a small stationery shop in Kosgi said: “As there are no industries in Kodangal, a majority of people are dependent on farming. However, due to lack of any regular irrigation source, farmers are dependent on rainwater.” Besides, citizens are forced to depend on groundwater for drinking, exposing them to the threat of fluoride consumption. Kodangal has very few avenues for higher education. There is only one government degree college, which does not offer many specialised courses
‘Revanth overconfident’
Gurunath Reddy, a resident of Kodangal who won the Assembly election five times, but lost to Revanth Reddy in 2014, has decided to throw his weight behind the TRS candidate, P Narender Reddy. He said: “I have visited more than 120 villages and I came to know that Revanth has visited only five villages. He has the arrogance that he will win the election but he will lose because TRS has many achievements to speak about.” Construction of roads in many villages, sanctioning of 50-bedded hospitals in Kodangal and Kosgi were among the factors listed by Gurunath, as to why people will vote for TRS.