HYDERABAD: With elections around the corner, Adivasi Congress has been demanding tickets in the open category stating that they are a deciding factor in 79 Assembly constituencies in the State. Central to the community’s argument is the precedent set by the party in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan, where open-category seats were allocated to Adivasis. This sparked the question of why this formula is not being implemented in Telangana.
On Sunday, All India Adivasi Congress president Shivajirao Moghe asked AICC Telangana in-charge Manikrao Thakre during the Adivasi Mahasabha why were Adivasi leaders not being given open category tickets when there are constituencies with about 50,000 Adivasi votes. He exuded confidence that Adivasi leaders would win hands down and cited the example of Karnataka, where the party won all 15 seats contested by Adivasis in the recent polls.
All India Adivasi Congress vice president Bellaiah Naik used the Adivasi Mahasabha, which was attended by its office bearers to elucidate the prominence that the Adivasis hold and appealed to the party to win the confidence of STs by giving them due representation in ticket distribution.
“In Adilabad, there are about 40,000 voters from the Gond tribe and about 15,000 from the Lambada community. We will easily win from such constituencies. We don’t have any groups in Congress. Our group is the party, our candidate is the ‘hand symbol’,” Bellaiah Naik said.
Thakre assured the Adivasi Congress that their appeals would be given serious consideration. He pledged to allocate open-category tickets whenever feasible. He recommended the involvement of Porike Balaram Naik, former Union minister and member of election-related committees, to nominate potential ST candidates for general seats with sizeable Adivasi votes.