Vijayawada: All major political parties in Andhra Pradesh are wooing people of backward classes for winning the 2024 Assembly general elections. Understandably, BC communities are an all-important factor during elections within AP, as they comprise 55 percent of the population.
YSRC led by Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy is going all out chanting the BC mantra for attracting backward classes into the ruling party fold. Not only did YSRC hold the mega Jai Ho BC Maha Sabha on December 7, its MPs in parliament have been requesting that backward classes be provided reservations in education, public employment, legislature and higher judiciary in proportion to their population.
Ruling party MP Vijayasai Reddy is scheduled to introduce a private member bill to amend the Constitution providing reservations for BCs as per the ratio of their population, which is to be decided by holding of a census.
Seeing the rising pitch of ruling YSRC in favour of BCs, Telugu Desam, Jana Sena and BJP are echoing the backward class slogan to woo the community. Incidentally, TD had once been branded as BCs party when the community was given top priority by Telugu Desam founder NTR.
YSRC founder Jagan Mohan Reddy too took advantage of this factor and wooed backward classes during his Praja Sankalpa Yatra walkathon as leader of opposition in the run-up to 2019 assembly general elections. The party offered tickets to BCs in 2019 elections in unreserved and general seats also and further passed a BC Declaration. The YSRC chief secured for his party 151 of the total 175 MLA seats.
For an encore, even though assembly elections are still 16 months away in AP, ruling YSRC is wooing BCs with redoubled vigour. The highly successful mega Jai Ho BC Maha Sabha on December 7 has given the ruling party wings. YSRC will follow it up by raising BC reservations in the ongoing winter session of the parliament.
Opposition Telugu Desam is trying strenuously to get back the support it had among BCs. It has started launching scathing attacks against YSRC underlining that Reddy leaders are dominating the government and the party.
The ruling party retaliated with a counter campaign of statistics with BC ministers and leaders going to town saying backward classes have been given nine district president posts, 10 MPs, 44 ministers, MLAs and MLCs, eight constituency coordinators, two state spokespersons, eight presidents of associated wings, 32 general corporations chairmen, 56 chairmen of castes corporations, six ZP chairpersons, 12 ZP vice-chairpersons, 16 mayors and deputy mayors, 10 DCCB / DCMS chairpersons, six Grandhalaya chairpersons, 135 directors to general corporations, 667 directors to BC corporations, 289 corporators, 211 ZPTC members, 111 municipal chairpersons / vice chairpersons, 841 Councillors, 760 MPPs / vice MPPs, 2,791 MPTC members, 3,985 sarpanches, 59,872 panchayat ward members, 433 AMC chairpersons / directors, 2,990 PACS chairpersons, 56 DCCB / DCMS directors, 7,429 BC committees’ members, 214 state-level BC committees’ members and 1,466 BCs to various trusts.
YSRC ministers and leaders say their party will also conduct Jai Ho BC meetings in every district, constituency and mandal in the coming days to garner more support from BCs.
Jana Sena chief Pawan Kalyan too has started meeting BCs and is touring BC-dominated areas including north Andhra. TD supremo Chandrababu Naidu is touring various districts in the state trying to rebrand TD as BCs’ party. BJP is also making good use of its alliance with JS to lure BCs, apart from holding exclusive meetings with the community people.
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