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Congress in fix as OBCs seek more tickets after caste survey pitch
Though caste has never been a major factor in Telangana in any elections, the OBC leaders have been insisting that they should not be ignored on the pretext of selecting winnable candidates
Hyderabad : The Congress, which is making a strong pitch for a caste survey across the country in a bid to ensure social justice for Other Backward Castes (OBCs), is facing a piquant situation in Telangana in the selection of right candidates to contest the assembly elections scheduled for November 30.
The Congress is focussing on selecting the winning horses who can withstand the money power and party machinery of the ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) candidates in their respective constituencies, according to Congress functionaries.
But with the Congress taking up the OBC slogan across the country, the party in Telangana is under tremendous pressure from the OBC leaders who are demanding their pie in the party tickets to contest the assembly elections.
Though caste has never been a major factor in the Telangana region in any elections, the OBC leaders have been insisting that they should not be ignored on the pretext of selecting winnable candidates.
As per the household survey conducted by the Telangana government in 2014, the OBCs constitute 51% of the total population of 36 million population in the state. “We have submitted a representation to the All India Congress Committee, seeking at least three assembly seats for OBCs in each of 17 parliamentary constituencies in Telangana, which comes to around 51 out of 119 assembly seats in the state. Rahul Gandhi assured that if not three, a minimum of two assembly seats would be given to the OBCs,” former MP and Congress OBC MPs’ Forum convenor V Hanumantha Rao told HT.
Telangana PCC campaign committee chairman Madhu Yashki Goud, too, said the party should give at least 34 assembly seats to the OBCs in those constituencies where they have fair chances of winning. “The OBC leaders of the party have made a request to the high command to this effect,” he said.
Even PCC president A Revanth Reddy told reporters in the last week of September that the party is trying to give 34 tickets to the OBCs as demanded by them. “In any case, we shall give more seats to the OBCs than what the BRS has given,” he said.
BRS president and Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, who was the first to announce the list of party candidates on August 21 for the assembly elections, gave only 22 tickets to the OBCs.
On Sunday, the Congress released the first list of candidates for the upcoming assembly polls, of which only 12 are OBCs, while the Reddy community got the lion’s share with 17 tickets, followed by seven Velamas, two Brahmins and three Muslims. As many as 12 SCs and two STs were accommodated in the constituencies reserved for them.
“There are still 64 seats left for which the Congress has to announce candidates. Of them, the OBCs should get another 22 seats in the distribution of tickets,” Hanumantha Rao said. “This will give us an advantage over the BRS, which is fielding only 22 OBCs in the elections,” he added.
In the last assembly elections held in December 2018, the Congress had allotted 24 seats to the OBCs, compared to 32 seats in 2014. “This time, we are asking for more, in tune with the party’s stand for OBC reservations all over the country,” the former MP said.
What is more, the OBC leaders in the Congress want the tickets in the constituencies where the party has the chances of winning. “There is no point in giving more seats to the OBCs in the old city of Hyderabad, just for the sake of satisfying them, because they cannot win those seats. Similarly in districts like Mahabubnagar, where there are more assembly seats, the OBCs should be given more than two seats,” Hanumanth Rao said.
However, the Congress doesn’t want to lose the chances of winning the elections just to appease the OBCs. “No doubt, OBCs are important; but we need candidates who have the resources to win the elections, irrespective of whether they are Reddys, Kammas, Velamas or even OBCs. If we go only by the caste criterion, the party cannot come to power,” a senior Congress leader, who refused to be quoted, said.
He reminded that even in the past, when tickets were given to the OBCs as per their demand, they did not win enough seats. “For example, former PCC president Ponnala Lakshmaiah, a prominent OBC leader, was given the party ticket twice from Jangaon assembly constituency in 2014 and 2018. On both the occasions, he had lost by a huge margin,” the party leader said.
So was the case with senior OBC leader Ponnam Prabhakar from Karimnagar, who also lost the election twice despite being given preference. “This time, we are looking for strong candidates, who are being identified based on a survey done by our strategists,” the party leader added.
