Hyderabad: Many of the 145 nominees from Telangana’s Gajwel constituency knew from the start they stood no chance of winning.
After all, Gajwel is represented – and has been for nearly 10 years now – by K. Chandrashekar Rao (KCR), the man who holds the triple distinction of being Telangana’s chief minister, founder-leader of the ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) and the political spearhead of the Telangana statehood movement.
On top of this, a good chunk of whatever anti-incumbency exists here is likely to be cornered in the high-profile showdown between the chief minister and the BJP’s Eatala Rajender, a once-trusted lieutenant of KCR who is now a rival.
So why did Gajwel come to record the highest number of election nominations – the Election Commission (EC) received 154 nominations here – in the state? Part of the answer lies in the flurry of independent contestants, many of whom filed their nominations as a way to highlight the issues they are facing, as The South First has previously reported.
Illustration: Pariplab Chakraborty
While the concept of a “protest vote” has existed in India with the introduction of NOTA, an emerging trend of “protest nominations” has surfaced in Telangana. In the 2019 general election, over 200 turmeric farmers stood against K. Kavitha, then the Nizamabad MP and KCR’s daughter.
These nominations represent the deep sense of disaffection that diverse sections of society have against KCR and the BRS.
After 74 candidates withdrew their nominations from Gajwel and the EC rejected 16 others, 44 candidates remain in the fray here.
Hundred-strong group files to have land woes heard
About 100 of the 145 candidates who submitted their nominations from Gajwel belong to a group of people who say that their properties in Shankar Hills, an area on the western outskirts of Hyderabad, were “stolen” from them.
They allege that the BRS government’s ‘Dharani’ land management portal contributed to the problem.
Veeraiah Konduri, a lawyer associated with the group of nominees, said that these properties were captured and resold by the land mafia with the support of revenue officials starting in 1996, when construction on the lands was restricted due to their proximity to two important reservoirs.
Konduri also said that though court orders have reaffirmed the rightful ownership of the properties, the Dharani portal misclassified them as agricultural land and issued pattadar passbooks to their erstwhile owners who sold them in the 1980s to the involved group of people.
Mudragalla Nageshwar Rao, one of the nominees, told The South First news website that they wanted to throw light on their long-neglected problem.
“We have raised this issue multiple times, but no one paid heed. With over 100 people in the [Shankar Hills Welfare Association], we filed nominations against KCR to draw attention to the problem,” The South First quoted him as saying.
Konduri told The Wire that most of the nominees withdrew from the contest after BRS leader and Telangana’s health and finance minister T. Harish Rao assured them that the issue would be rectified. The nominations of some persons were rejected for irregularities.
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Fighting for those displaced by reservoirs
One of the Telangana government’s flagship schemes is the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project (KLIP). Inaugurated in 2019 and touted as the world’s largest project of its kind, the KLIP pumps water from the low-lying Godavari river in the state’s north to higher, drought-prone areas in the rest of the state.
However, the Telangana government’s process of acquiring land for the project has not been free from controversy.
For one, the state government has been accused of trying to bypass a 2013 Union government law regulating land acquisition and rehabilitation for displaced persons.
It has also been accused of providing inadequate compensation and poor-quality housing materials to people displaced by reservoirs that are part of the KLIP.
Krishna Kumar, a man who used to live in a village submerged by the KLIP’s Kondapochamma reservoir and is now contesting from Gajwel, told The South First that the state government coerced people to part with their lands.
“Many people received houses with poor construction, and now, with our own money, we are making repairs,” Kumar told The South First. “When we refused to give away the lands for a lower package, a group of 30 [Scheduled Caste] families filed court cases. In retaliation, the government forcefully evacuated the families and provided nothing.”
“It’s a nightmare for us; once we had everything, now we’re on the road,” he was quoted as saying.
Reservoirs created as part of the KLIP have submerged multiple villages. Photo: irrigationpms.cgg.gov.in.
Dasari Chendramohan, a resident of Telangana’s Peddapalli district and another of Gajwel’s 44 remaining candidates, told The Wire that he was contesting the election to seek justice for people displaced in his district as well as those by other KLIP initiatives.
He also alleged that people from different castes were paid different compensation rates by the government.
“Our problems will be understood by the chief minister if we contest against him from his constituency. The issue will not be cleared unless the government leadership knows about it. I filed my nomination here to defeat KCR,” he said.
Sugarcane farmers demand re-opening of once-prominent factory
Three candidates from this seat – Baddam Srinivas Reddy, Mamidi Narayana Reddy and Navanandi Limbareddy – are sugarcane farmers who live in northern Telangana’s Jagityal (or Jagtial) district, a three-hour drive away from Gajwel.
They belong to a group of farmers who have long protested the closing of the Nizam Sugar Factory in Nizamabad close to a decade ago (as well as some other sugar factories), and demand their reopening.
Baddam Srinivas Reddy told The Wire that the economy of the area around the Nizam factory suffered a blow following the factory’s closure, as many people directly or indirectly benefited from the factory’s operations.
“We decided that our issue would come up for discussion only if we contested against the chief minister himself,” he said.
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“Now the Congress has said in their manifesto that they will open the sugar factories if they come to power, as has the BJP. It is very sad that the BRS has not even mentioned this issue in their manifesto,” Srinivas Reddy continued.
Others in the fray
Other independents in the fray from Gajwel said they wanted to highlight issues such as unemployment, the lack of official recognition for the Banjara (locally known as Lambadi) language and compensation for the kin of those who died for the Telangana statehood movement in the early 2010s.
Dasari Haribabu, a PhD candidate at the University of Hyderabad and who is listed as residing in Gajwel, said he is contesting the election to sensitise people about unemployment.
Criticising the cancellation of public service exams in the state as the “epitome of stupidity”, Haribabu said they were especially painful as students had waited for a long time for exams to be notified.
“How can any individual or educated person believe in and vote for [KCR]?” Haribabu asked.
He acknowledged that he would get only a minor share of the votes in Gajwel but said his agenda was to “sensitise the people” and let the government know not to ignore the educated youth, and also recalled the narrative during the Telangana statehood movement that ‘Andhra people’ taking a disproportionate number of jobs was resulting in unemployment in Telangana.
Haribabu also said that a lack of good opportunities in rural areas was leading to young people not wanting to finish their studies.
“If you see data about rural Telangana, you see that most people don’t study beyond the tenth grade because there is no hope,” Haribabu charged.
Telangana will go to the polls on Thursday (November 30).
Votes for the elections in Telangana as well as those conducted in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Mizoram earlier this month will be counted on December 3.
With additional reporting by Vikram Mukka.
