Caste power play: Numerically small groups Reddys & Kammas dominate seats lists in Andhra Pradesh

Hyderabad: Two numerically small yet socially strong caste groups dominate the Andhra political scene. And this is once again evident with the distribution of tickets for the May 13 Assembly polls.

Despite their assertions in support of the Backward Class castes (BCs), both the ruling YSRCP and the opposition alliance led by the TDP have allotted a lion’s share of the Assembly poll tickets to the Kammas and Reddys.

While the BCs are estimated to be around 35 per cent of the state’s population, the Kammas comprise 5 per cent and the Reddys 8 per cent. While it has always been a power play among Kammas and Reddys in Andhra politics, the TDP is often identified with the former bloc and the YSRCP with the latter.

Since 1956, the Reddys have held the CM position 14 times, while the Kammas have held it seven times.

Until the emergence of YSRCP, Reddys were seen to be aligned with the Congress. After the YSRCP started occupying the Congress space, a majority of the Reddys shifted their allegiance to Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy’s party.

Credit: DH Graphic

Among the tickets allocated to Forward Castes, Reddys come on the top with 49 candidates from the community in the YSRCP list, whereas Kammas, with 34 tickets, dominate the list of TDP-led alliance. If the seats are given in proportion to population, the BCs should have received more tickets.

While Andhra Pradesh has close to 4.8 crore population, of the total 175 assembly seats, 29 are reserved for Scheduled Castes (SC) and seven for Scheduled Tribes (ST).

With more than 140 different sub castes, the OBC population is estimated to be around 35 per cent to 40 per cent.

Among the Forward Castes, the Kapus are estimated to be the single largest with more than 15 per cent of the population.

As a major bloc of the Kapus is expected to go with the TDP-led alliance this time, thanks to actor Pawan Kalyan’s Jana Sena aligning with Naidu, the YSRCP has been wooing the BCs for sometime.

In order to rein in the YSRCP’s efforts to woo the BCs, who have been a loyal vote bank of the TDP, Naidu has been equally putting efforts.

However, the seat distribution paints a contrasting picture. The YSRCP has nominated just 41 BC candidates while 91 from Forward Castes have been given tickets in the 139 unreserved seats.

Among the 91 candidates from the forward castes, 49 went to Reddys and Kapus topped second in the list with 23 seats. Kammas got nine seats.

On the opposite side, TDP is contesting in 144 seats,  Jana Sena in 21 and BJP in 10 seats.

The TDP-led alliance has given tickets to 38 BC candidates, while 34 Kammas, 29 Reddys and 18 Kapus have received tickets.