Madigas may swing Cong poll prospects

Hyderabad: The votes of the Madiga community assume great importance in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Their votes can turn the fortunes of the candidates in many LS constituencies. The big question now is in whose favour they would swing the polls this time.

For a long time, the Madigas have been fighting for sub-categorization.

The Madiga community is of the opinion that the benefits of reservation under the Scheduled Caste (SC) category have been cornered by the Malas, with Madigas being left out. The 2011 census showed that the Madigas constitute at least 50% of the total SCs in Telangana.

Madiga leaders have also claimed that the benefits have been cornered by the dominant caste groups like the Malas among the SCs and the Munnuru Kapus among the BCs. In the backdrop of this, their votes assume greater importance this time. It may be recalled that recently Prime Minister Narendra Modi had promised sub-categorisation of Madigas while addressing a public meeting along with MRPS leader Manda Krishna Madiga in November 2023. This, the BJP feels, would certainly help them gain the support of the Madigas.

It is also felt that since the Congress party during the Assembly elections promised caste survey and was making necessary preparations for taking up the caste survey claiming that the benefits were cornered by dominant caste groups among the SCs and BCs may also push the Madiga community closer to the BJP. Though Congress leaders like V Hanumantha Rao feel that there would be a split in the Madiga votes as a good number of them believe that the caste survey would set right the inequalities, there are others like former minister Mothkupalli Narsimhulu who feel that about 30% of Madiga community had distanced from the party as it did not give even a single ticket. This shift could be seen in constituencies where the SC population is considerable in places like Warangal, Peddapalli, and Nagarkurnool.

He said even in Bhongir general category seat, which has a sizeable population of SCs, seems to be leaning towards the BJP due to the promise of SC categorization.

The Madiga community, it is felt, is upset because the Mala community bagged the nominations for Peddapalli and Nagarkurnool, while Warangal had gone to Kadiyam family (Byndla caste).

This has led to a major section of the community to openly announce their support to the BJP.

While this is the ground situation, the BRS feels that key leaders like R S Praveen Kumar will be able to split some percentage of Madiga votes and this would help Praveen Kumar to win.