Telangana Stir Turns to Reddy vs Velama Bout
posted on Apr 19, 2011 @ 4:22PM
Curiously Telangana stir is slowly turning in to a Reddy vs Velama community bout to preserve their own domination on the region. Reddys, the predominant community in Telangana is worried that it would be marginalized in the Telangana region if TRS president K Chandrasekhar Rao and his family continue to call the shots in the separate state movement. To counter this, several leaders from this forward community cutting across party lines are rallying together to dilute KCR's hold on the T movement.
The Reddys are closing ranks by spreading across the message within the community that it is only the KCR family (including son K T Ramarao and daughter K Kavita) and the Velama community, who would stand to substantially gain as the Telangana movement gathers strength. In terms of numbers, the Velamas constitute a minor section of the Telangana population while the Reddys are dominant both in numbers and in clout. In order to break KCR's hold on the separate state movement, the strategy is to strengthen the agitation under the political joint action committee (JAC) headed by M Kodandaram.
According to sources, when TRS distanced itself from the million march held on March 10, Jaipal Reddy and Sabita Indra Reddy have prevailed upon Kodandaram (a Reddy himself) to ensure that the event was a success. Attempting to use Kodandaram as the front man, Jaipal Reddy is said to be playing a key role in getting together the leaders of his community in the region. That is the reason why the TRS is targeting these two leaders in particular. And Sunday's incident in Ranga Reddy district in which TRS activists hurled eggs at the convoys of Union petroleum minister Jaipal Reddy and home minister Sabita Indra Reddy is said to be an offshoot of this clandestine war going on between the Reddys and the Velama communities to which KCR belongs.