YSR castes it right

HYDERABAD: Caste equations in Andhra Pradesh are clearly drawn and this election it played out much along expected lines. The dominant Reddy community and minority Muslims have backed the Congress and the land-owning Kammas lent support to its main rival, the Telugu Desam Party. But the Kapus, who were expected to vote for actor-turned-politician Chiranjeevi, disappointed him.

Reddys comprise about 9% of the state���s 8-crore population and have a large presence in Rayalseema, a drought-prone backward area. Rayalseema is the fiefdom of the ruling Congress chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy (YSR).

The Kammas, on the other hand, are concentrated in coastal Andhra, especially in Krishna, Guntur and Prakasam districts. Although YSR���s rival and TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu also hails from Rayalseema, his party fared much better in Telangana this time round.

The Telangana region covers ten Telugu speaking district of the old Hyderabad state, the erstwhile dominion of the Nizam. It is the bastion of KC Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR)-led Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) who has been championing statehood for Telangana.

The TRS joined the grand-alliance led by the TDP to oust the Congress. ���While the TDP has gained from the tie-up, the reverse has not happened. Votes have not been transferred from the TDP to the TRS,��� reckons Prof Haragopal of the University of Hyderabad.

Reddys and Kammas have dominated the state legislature for many years now. In 2004, 93 legislators were from the Reddy community, and 36 were Kammas. However, the Kapu community failed to make a mark. The Kapus and the Balijas together sent only 22 representatives to the 294-member legislature in 2004. Chiranjeevi, who is a Kapu, aspired to raise his community���s representation in the state legislature.

His newly-formed Praja Rajyam Party (PRP) hoped to reap major gains in the coastal districts of Srikakulam, Vijayanagaram and Visakhapatnam, cutting into the vote bank of the TDP. But his ploy did not seem to have worked. Though Chiranjeevi won the Tirupati assembly constituency, he lost from Palacole in West Godavari, signalling he did not have the full backing of the Kapu community.

The PRP also promised consolidation among the scheduled and back-ward castes, but failed to garner votes from this segment. The scheduled castes were seen to be a solid vote bank for the Congress only till the nineties. Later, there was dissent within different sub-sects and the Congress blamed the TDP for engineering a spilt.

The Madiga community aired its reservations against the Congress, saying the Malas, another sub-sect, cornered all the benefits of reservation. The Malas have backed the Congress.

The minority Muslims are another dominant vote-bank, though there are region-wise differences. In Telangana, particularly around Hyderabad, Muslims have traditionally backed the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM). But they were far too scattered in the Rayalseema and coastal regions to be an effective vote bank.

The Congress, however, appears to have succeeded in consolidating this vote bank, though two Muslim state ministers lost their seats.