Rebel poet Gaddar enrols in voter list

Revolutionary balladeer Gaddar who was born a year after India got independence will vote for the first time in the 2019 general elections.

Gummadi Vittal Rao, popularly known as Gaddar in the Telugu speaking states, enrolled his name in the voters' list at his native village, Toopran, in Medak district recently.

“Yes, I am going to exercise my franchise in my native village in the next general elections. I have applied for my voting right for the first time in my life,” Gaddar said.

The bank clerk-turned-Naxalite was as an active member of a cultural front organisation of the erstwhile People War Group (PWG) for several years. Gaddar sang revolutionary songs at every occasion when the system tried to silence his voice. During his stint with the Maoist party, Gaddar urged people to boycott the elections. He severed his ties with the Maoists in April last year.

Gaddar floated Telangana Praja Front in October 2010 to fight for a separate state of Telangana with the support of writers, poets, Dalits and other suppressed communities. However, his efforts to unite these groups failed.

Recently, while addressing a meeting organised by the Bahujan Left Front, an initiative of Left parties headed by the CPM, Gaddar evinced interest to contest in the next Assembly elections.

Meanwhile, the Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) Telangana wing has invited Gaddar to join the outfit. Party representative Priyanka Kakkar met Gaddar at his residence and invited him to join the AAP. She even offered Gaddar the chief minister's post. Gaddar has refused the offer as he wants to float his own political outfit based on his ideology.

Gaddar's options are wide open as his son Surya recently joined the Congress and it is speculated that the balladeer might even follow suit.