A bloody caste war is all set to unfold in Election 2014 in Coastal Andhra-Rayalaseema.
While people are more or less united in their opposition to division of the state, appearing beneath the surface are caste contours that are likely to firm up as polls draw close. A little over two days of travel in Andhra, one could make out who represents which caste, depending on their response to what the future holds for the Telugu Desam or YSR Congress. We stopped at a make-shift camp for Samaikyandhra at Pedaparapudi village in Krishna district, this one put up by teachers and employees. The discussion was sober, with each of the dozen present coming out reasoning on why the state should remain united.
The cracks appeared as we began to scratch the surface to get a feel of the political thought-process. The tent itself was put up in the forecourt of Prashant’s house, a farmer from the Kamma community. “I voted for YSR in 2009 because he genuinely did good to farmers but this time, it will be for TDP,” he declared. Within no time, Nagaraju, a Brahmin and a teacher, literally pounced on him. “What wrong has Jagan done? Who is clean in present day politics? No one talks about missing coal files but everyone questions how Jagan got bail?”
As we tried to change the discussion to figure out if an alliance between TDP and BJP would help, revenue officer Koteswara Rao was inclined to say Yes. He is a BC, a good number of whom are said to be moving towards TDP. The lowest strata among them, who had benefited during YSR regime, along with SCs, are, however, still with the YSRC. The officer was quickly cut short by another teacher, a Dalit, who made no secret of his love for YSRC, justifying the same with the assertion that if there was one party committed to Samaikyandhra, it’s Jagan’s. A little further, at Jamispeta village, the equation plays out more clearly. “Jagan is like a flowering Jasmine,” claimed Venkateswara Rao, a daily-wage earner. No prizes for guessing: he is a Dalit. Srinivasa Rao, a farmer, fumed: “Don’t you see foreign (read Christian) influence behind his bail?” He then pressed the auto-start button to zoom off on his new motorbike. He is a Gowda, a BC.
The exception to this are constituencies where one community—Kammas in Andhra or Reddys in Rayalaseema—maintains a stranglehold and the rest follow the diktat.