After using social justice as the platform to carve out a separate Telangana, both the BRS and Congress have maintained historical caste inequities. This has allowed the BJP and its virulent Hindutva to grow among the OBCs, SCs, and STs of Telangana.

By Charan Teja

In Telangana, the two feudal castes — the Reddys and Velamas – dominate the state’s political landscape though they comprise not more than 5% to 6% of the demography. Even as the two rivals – the Reddys led by Telangana Congress president and Chief Minister Revanth Reddy and the Velamas who nearly revived their lost glory for a decade under the reign of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) founder and chief K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR) – are engaged in a power struggle, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is desperately seeking to gain a foothold in the state.

In the united Andhra Pradesh, Telangana as a region had experienced exclusion, marginalisation, and undermining, which had led to demands for statehood in the first place. Also, the Reddy-Velama rivalry in Telangana was insignificant in the undivided state as the power tussle was always between the Kammas and Reddys of Seemandhra. Despite having a firm hold on the rural society by the subjugation of lowered castes – mainly Dalits – as Doras and Patels (honorific suffixes to feudals), the Telangana Reddys and Velamas were either confined to one or two cabinet berths or relegated to the role of sub-chieftains in the Congress and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) governments.

The last phase of the separate Telangana movement with popular slogans like Neellu (Water), Nidhulu (Resources), Niyamakalu (Jobs/appointments) drew huge support from Dalits, tribes, backward castes, and minorities. However, the movement’s leadership remained in the hands of the Velamas and Reddys, like former CM KCR and Prof Kodandaram. The undeterred mass movement forced the then Congress Union Government to accord the separate state in 2014, leaving the field open to all aspirants.

This story was originally published in thenewsminute.com. Read the full story here.