Huzurnagar: REDfort turns into REDDYfort!

‘CAST your vote” is the slogan that is both misspelt and misquoted in India. It’s often understood as ‘Vote your CASTE.

Huzurnagar (Telangana) is no exception. Earlier it was a ‘RED’fort. Again an abused word! Let it not be mistaken for the one in Delhi. ‘Reds’ (Communists) had their say in the erstwhile Nalgonda district for many decades. When the Congress Party outwitted them, it became ‘REDDY’ fort. It continues to stay as Reddy’s citadel till date. If any party wants to take on Congress, it has to field the candidate from the same social strata.

Uttam Kumar Reddy of Congress party has won this seat for five times. After the formation Telangana, Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) was left with no other go, except to choose a Reddy candidate to take on the Congress from this Assembly Constituency.  S.Saidi Reddy could give a close fight to Uttam Kumar Reddy but lost with a narrow margin of 7000 votes in December 2018 polls. The same warhorse is now taking on Uttam Padmavati Reddy in the ongoing by poll.

The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) too would have come with a Reddy candidate, had it aimed to win. It handpicked its candidate from KAMMA community instead. The party had suffered an erosion in KAMMA leadership, as bigwigs like (Sujana Chowdary and Garikapati) shifted loyalties in Rajya Sabha to BJP. The Saffron party has started wooing many more from the Telugu states. In order to prevent the exodus, the TDP leadership wanted to prove its presence and fielded Chava Kiranmayi from the same clan.

The Candidates may not have faces; they have castes.

-Satish Chandar