BJP to field women, OBC candidates as part of Telangana poll strategy

The two most sought-after electoral segments in India currently -- women and people hailing from the backward castes -- are expected to be favoured by the Bharatiya Janata Party in ticket distribution for the Telangana assembly elections due in December this year.

Two senior BJP leaders familiar with the development confirmed that 30% of the tickets will be given to women, and more than 35% of the tickets for OBCs.

Data recorded at the time of Telangana’s formation in 2014 indicated that women account for 43% of the state’s 40 million population. The OBCs -- a powerful section that outnumbers all other castes by totalling up to 54% -- are influential and can dictate which way the political weathercock makes flight.

“The nuts and bolts of ticket distribution and the candidates list shall be finalised after the all-hands meet with BJP president JP Nadda scheduled for October 4. We are also waiting for the election commission to announce the poll dates after which we will make the list public,” said NV Subash, Telangana BJP spokesperson. In the 2018 election, 32 out of a total 119 seats were given to the OBCs by the BJP accounting to 27% of the seats.

What also lends credence to BJP’s idea behind the practice of granting a higher number of seats to OBCs is that three of its five members of parliament (MPs) are from the backward communities. While Lok Sabha members Bandi Sanjay and Arvind Dharmapuri belong to the Munnaru Kapu communities, Rajyasabha member K Laxman, who is the national president for the BJP’s OBC Morcha, is fromthe Madiga caste - a sub-caste of Dalits. Laxman was nominated to the Rajya Sabha from Uttar Pradesh.

Dharmapuri had defeated chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao’s (KCR) daughter K Kavitha in Nizamabad in the 2019 parlimentary elections with a margin of 70,875 votes. The BJP would be counting on is former health minister Etela Rajendar from powerful Mudiraj community (sub-sect of the OBCs) who defected from the ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) in 2021. Etela, a six-time legislator and a three-time minister, is considered KCR’s fellow-general in the statehood movement. His hopping over to the BJP was seen as a hopeful indication of the transfer of OBC votes to the party that polled just 6.98% of the total votes in the 2018 elections.

In the last two elections since 2014, the BRS has increasingly counted on the OBC votes with KCR dedicating once of his flagship schemes - Dalit Bandhu - to the OBC and dalit communities as beneficiaries. According to official data, there are 7,79,902 Dalit families with 13,58,000 acres of farm land across Telangana. In order to shore up votes from the OBCs, a special scheme called BC (Backward Caste) Bandhu scheme was introduced as part of the decennial celebrations of the state formation in June this year to extend ₹1 lakh as financial assistance to backward classes dependent on caste-based professions. The state received more than 532,000 applications for this scheme. After much scrutiny and field-level surveys, minister for BC welfare Gangula Kamalakar announced in July that 300 applicants from each of the 119 assembly constituencies will receive ₹1 lakh as assistance. However, despite the CM Chandrashekar Rao releasing ₹400 crore for this scheme, there has been much unrest in the constituencies with many deserving applicants complaining of being excluded from the scheme.

Experts say OBC votes are crucial for KCR to return for the third time. “With the BRS party unable to fully implement the Dalit Bandhu and the BC Bandhu schemes, lakhs of applications are pending before the government seeking allotment of the promised two-bedroom houses and patta lands. This has not gone down with the backward castes. Adding fuel to the fire, KCR, who is still smarting from Etela Rajendar’s jump to the BJP, has not allotted a single ticket to the powerful Mudiraj community. There’s little chance now for KCR to make up for this loss of goodwill,” said Koteswara Rao, a political analyst.

The BRS was quick to react when they heard of the BJP’s ticket plan. “If the BJP was so keen on OBC and Dalit uplift, why did they replace Bandi Sanjay with Kishan Reddy as the Telangana party chief? Their party’s contribution to the development of the state has been so minimal and they do not have a narrative either. This is why they are having to resort to social engineering to be able to poll even a significant number of votes.” Sravan Dasoju, BRS spokesperson said.

The Congress, still feeling upbeat from the success of the Congress Working Committee meeting a few weeks earlier, targeted the BJP for its inability to include a reservation for OBCs in the recently passed Women’s Reservation Bill. Former MP and Special Representative of the then Andhra Pradesh government in Delhi, Mallu Ravi, said, “The BJP does not have winnable candidates in other segments of the social strata which is why they have come up with this political game. If they really wanted to empower the communities, they should have implemented the Women’s Bill right away.”

The BJP has received more than 700 applications until 10 September from people wanting to contest the state election. “With our Mahila Morcha having done extensive work in all the constituencies, we are looking to give new candidates a greater number of seats as well to encourage women,” a senior party official said. “The move to give 30% of its tickets to women will help the BJP score well on perception rankings. And it is the political hurdle that any party would like to cross in an election,” Koteswara Rao said.