Hyderabad: Home to the mighty Nallamala forests and the confluence of Krishna and Tungabhadra rivers, Nagarkurnool is a key Lok Sabha segment, as it shares its borders with both Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.
The feudal stronghold over Gadwal on one side and the revolutionary struggles of the Nallamala on the other factor in the socio-political spectrum in this SC-reserved parliamentary constituency, with its majority vote bank being the Madigas.
Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy’s native village Kondareddipalle of Achampet mandal also falls under this Lok Sabha segment. Revanth Reddy has repeatedly claimed to be the son of Nallamala during his speeches.
This election, BRS made a calculated move by fielding former BSP state president RS Praveen Kumar, a former IPS officer who took everyone by surprise by joining BRS, the party he had fought against in the 2023 Assembly elections. A native of Aiza mandal in the Alampur Assembly constituency, Praveen Kumar belongs to the SC-Madiga community.
BJP has fielded Kalwakurthy ZPTC Pothuganti Bharath Prasad, the son of sitting MP Pothuganti Ramulu, who recently left BRS to join the BJP. He also belongs to Madiga community. A young politician preparing for civil services while serving as ZPTC, Bharath comes with certain ideals and a certain vision for the development of the region.
Dr Mallu Ravi, the Congress candidate, is a seasoned politician who was elected to Lok Sabha from the same constituency in 1991 and 1998 Lok Sabha elections. He comes from the SC-Mala community.
Out of around 15 lakh voters in the segment, 70% are SCs, who will play the deciding factor in the elections. The BCs form a sizeable section too.
“This election is going to be primarily between Congress and BJP, with Congress having an edge,” opines Bhaskar, a resident of Achampet.
His reasoning comes from the fact that Congress has won five out of the seven Assembly segments under the Nagarkurnool Lok Sabha segment in the last election. Due to being in power in the state, and Mallu Ravi being a familiar face locally, who has represented the segment twice, Bhaskar feels that it will be smooth sail for the grand-old party which has traditionally had a strong cadre base in this region.
However, the challenge for Congress is the party not fielding a single SC-Madiga candidate in any of the 17 Lok Sabha segments in the state, and how it will convince that section to vote for a Mala, at a time when the issue of categorisation of SCs has become an election issue.
Congress’ Gadwal conundrum
Gadwal has seen a large shift in the recent Assembly elections. Though the Congress had fielded Gadwal ZPTC Saritha to contest from Gadwal constituency hoping to make the most out of her BC lineage, ultimately BRS candidate Bandla Krishna Mohan Reddy who comes from the feudal lineage of the Gadwal sansthan, managed to win with a margin of 7,036 votes.
G Ranjith Kumar, who represented the All India Forward Bloc had secured 13,454 votes, almost double the 7,558 votes polled by the BJP candidate Shiva Reddy.
Ranjith comes from the Kuruva community, which has a strong voter base not only in Gadwal constituency (around 50,000 votes) but also in Makthal (40,000) and Narayanpet (around 20,000). He played a significant role in garnering the support of the weaker sections against the domination of one family, which has been holding power in the constituency for 70 years.
He led the movement supporting the cotton seed farmers in Gadwal, and held padayatra across 400 km before the Assembly elections, which helped him gain those votes.
Due to the delay by Congress in pulling him into its fold, he had no option but to extend his outside support to the BJP, where he believes, a vacuum has been left after the exit of BJP Mahabubnagar Lok Sabha candidate DK Aruna from Gadwal politics.
He claims that there are presently around 30 factions in Gadwal Congress, which were created due to the elevation of Saritha, a non-local to the constituency. He is campaigning for BJP in Makthal and Narayanpet as well.
However, Congress still has a strong cadre base in Kollapur, Kalwakurthy, Nagarkurnool, Wanaparthy, and Achampet assembly constituencies, where the party hopes to gain.
Challenge and opportunity for BJP
The sitting MP P Ramulu had received almost 5 lakh votes in the 2019 general elections, beating his nearest rival Mallu Ravi with a margin of around 1.9 lakh votes.
However, the challenge for Ramulu’s son Bharath who is contesting on a BJP ticket, will be to see that the support of BRS cadres who had supported his father doesn’t erode.
In all the seven assembly constituencies under the Lok Sabha segment combined, the BJP secured 1,18,513 votes in the 2023 assembly elections. 70,448 of those votes came from Kalwakurthy constituency alone, where the party’s candidate Thalloju Achary came second, trailing with just 5,410 votes.
It can be mentioned that Bangaru Shruthi, daughter of former BJP president Bangaru Laxman, who was the BJP candidate for this Lok Sabha segment, had received 1,29,021 votes in the 2019 general elections.
Though comparing assembly election results with the Lok Sabha elections will be like comparing oranges with mangoes, it does show where the party stands in this segment.
“The youth seems to be going with BJP this time around. My friends and relatives say they will vote for Modi this time, as they feel he should continue as the prime minister,” says Veeresh, a teacher and a social worker from Alampur, who has been a supporter of former Alampur MLA SA Sampath Kumar, AICC secretary.
Commoners challenge big players
Kollapur constituency grabbed the nation’s attention in the recent assembly elections when a commoner named Karne Shireesha, popularly known as ‘Barrelakka’ challenged big faces in the constituency by contesting as the MLA. She had alleged attacks against her and her brother by her political opponents during her campaign. Despite all the media publicity and awareness created among the people, she secured 5,754 votes. She has filed her nomination for the general election to the Nagarkurnool segment.
In the present general elections, another new face has emerged. Dasari Bharathi (27), a nursing practitioner, has filed her nomination from here. A native of Medikonda village of Aiza mandal, Bharathi comes from a family of farm labourers.
Having pursued her MSC in Nursing from Puducherry, she has worked at the Telangana Institute of Medical Sciences and Research (TIMS) as a staff nurse handling Covid-19 patients during the pandemic. She is now pursuing an LLB degree and wants to serve the constituents of Nagarkurnool.
She is representing Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) as its candidate.
“It is unfortunate that Nagarkurnool has never had a railway line. The medical college was established under the BRS government in Nagarkurnool doesn’t have adequate staff and infrastructure,” she points out.
She talks about the lack of road infrastructure in her mandal which borders Karnataka and AP, and the problems faced by pregnant women while being shifted to a government hospital for delivery.
“The health infrastructure is so bad in this region, that people have either the option of going to Hyderabad or Kurnool, if they need healthcare,” she notes.
Bharathi has studied in a social welfare residential school in Ghattu mandal in Gadwal district, which is known to be one of the most backward mandals in the country on the parameters of illiteracy and human development. Thanks to high migration in Ghattu, the school drop-out rate has been very high too.
Bharathi hails from SC-Mala community, and feels proud to say she is a Swearo.
However, she feels that RS Praveen Kumar has betrayed the people of Telangana by joining the BRS, putting his own political interests above the people’s interests.
Whether the common people’s candidates will make any impact in the general elections is in the hands of the electors. But the major political parties like BJP, BRS, and Congress, are all claiming their chances of winning this crucial seat.
As for the local issues like the demand for national project status for Palamuru-Rangareddy lift irrigation scheme which originates in this segment, a four-lane highway from Srisailam to Hyderabad which is in the offing, or the cable-stayed cum suspension bridge on the Krishna river to connect Kollapur with Athmakur in AP which was approved by the Centre last year, or the unresolved issue of Rajolibanda diversion scheme (RDS) between AP and Telangana; Nagarkurnool could be witnessing a triangular contest, where consolidation of Madiga vote will play a deciding factor, feel experts.
| 
