Telangana: Is Prajakutami Really a ‘People’s Alliance’?

As the candidates began filing their nominations on November 12, political heat has intensified in Telangana. The ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi Party (TRS) had dissolved the state assembly on September 6 passing shock waves across the state. The party had also announced a list of 105 candidates on the same day, taking advantage of the move. Meanwhile, the main opposition Congress party took almost two months in forging a grand alliance ‘Prajakutami’ translated as ‘people’s alliance’. The alliance has finally sorted out seat sharing with the Congress contesting on 94 seats, Telugu Desam Party (TDP) on 14 seats and Professor Kodandaram’s Telangana Jana Samithi on 8 seats and CPI on 3 seats.

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Congress had announced a list of 65 candidates on Monday and the complete list of all candidates representing the alliance is expected to be out in the next two days. The ruling TRS is yet to announce 12 more candidates. The last date to file nominations is November 19. Assembly elections in 119 constituencies in the state are scheduled to be held on December 7.

A recently released opinion poll survey by C-Voter has predicted that the Congress will win Telangana, along with Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh elections scheduled in November and December this year. C-Voter predicted that the TRS would win only a dismal 42 seats, while the Congress led alliance would bag 64, besides leaving 4 for BJP and 9 for others including the CPI(M)-floated Bahujan Left Front (BLF) and AIMIM (All India Majlees-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen).

In the previous 2014 elections, while the TRS party had won 63 seats with 34.3% vote share, Congress won 21 seats with 25.2% vote share and TDP had won 14.7% vote share. This means that the combined vote share of Congress and TDP equals to 39.9%, which is 5.6% more vote share than that of the BJP. While this would give an impression that if the respective parties’ vote shares reflect in this elections, Prajakutami would win. However, it should be noted that at the time of the state’s assembly dissolution, TRS held 90 seats, Congress (13), AIMIM (7), BJP (5), TDP (3) and CPI(M) held one seat. That is, in the last four years, 27 sitting MLAs have defected from parties including the Congress and TDP.

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“Even if the Congress-led alliance comes to power, there wouldn’t be any change in the rule. Both the TRS and Congress-led alliance would give preferences to the benefits of their leaders rather than people’s interests,” Dhanavath Ashok, a graduate student from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Hyderabad, told Newsclick. A resident of Miryalaguda constituency, Ashok, added that the politics of Congress or TRS have always neglected the interests of Dalits, Tribals, Muslims and Other Backward Castes.

Consider this, out of the total population of nearly 3.5 crore, Scheduled Castes (SC) constitute 15.45% and the Scheduled Tribes (ST) constitute 9.08%, while nearly 65% of the population belong to other backward castes and Muslims. The election commission has reserved 18 seats for SCs and 9 seats for ST candidates. Both TRS and Prajakutami have allotted seats to SCs and STs only in the reserved constituencies, as per their list of candidates and the majority seats are filled by candidates belonging to dominant landholding upper castes such as Reddys, Khammas and Velamas. Irrespective of the parties, leaders from these castes (the combined population of these castes is less than 10 percent in the state) have been ruling the Telangana region for decades.

Alternatives

The floated Bahujan Left Front is ahead of the Prajakutami in terms of announcing their contesting candidates and in reaching out to the voters. BLF, as earlier announced, allotted 60 seats (50%) to candidates belonging to SC, ST and OBC category, reaching out to the people promising social justice.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is in power at the centre, has announced to contest alone in all the constituencies in its attempt to increase it’s base in the state. The saffron party has announced a list of 38 candidates. While the AIMIM has already announced seven of its candidates in the constituencies where the party has maintained a considerable stronghold over time.

However, political analysts in the state are arguing that the TRS has made a secret pact with both BJP and AIMIM by not announcing the names of its candidates in the constituencies where BJP and AIMIM have been maintaining a stronghold in the previous years.

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