Political leaders sponsor Buddha statues, Buddha Viharas in run-up to elections

ADILABAD: Political leaders especially sitting BRS MLAs are taking a new fancy, setting up Lord Buddha’s statues on the lines of the BR Ambedkar memorials, as also the construction of Buddha Viharas in areas where the Dalit population is sizeable across the TS assembly constituencies.

This is majorly evident in Sirpur (T), Adilabad, Asifabad and Bellampalli in the erstwhile Adilabad district.

Shailender Waghmare of the BRS said the Lord Buddha statue was recently inaugurated at ‘Anand Buddha Vihar’ in Kursheed Nagar colony. Another one would be installed in the Ranadeevenagar colony in Adilabad town. Dalits as also Buddhists have around 37,000 votes in the Adilabad assembly constituency.

He said efforts were being made to mobilize funds for the installation of  12 new Buddha statues as also the development and repairs of Buddha Vihars and new community halls for Dalits in the Adilabad district’s assembly constituencies.

“We are planning to meet KCR soon under the banner of the International Buddhist Youth Organization, India. Proposals for these works will be submitted to the chief minister, who will likely visit Adilabad soon,” he said.

There are ‘Buddha Viharas’ in many villages. The population of Dalits who embraced Buddhism is considerable in these assembly constituencies.

Recently, Republican Party of India (RPI) president Prakash Ambedkar addressed the party's first meeting in Adilabad town and declared that the party will fight against the “communal” BJP. Many Mahars (Dalits) had migrated into Adilabad from bordering Maharashtra and settled down in areas along the state boundary long back.

It is said that MLA Koneru Konappa with his personal funds set up a gigantic Buddha statue in Nagamma Cheruvu in Sirpur (T) mandal headquarters in the Sirpur (T) assembly constituency. The massive Buddha statue looks like a Buddha statue in Hussainsagar in Hyderabad.

Social welfare minister Koppula Eshwar and former minister Thummala Nageshwar, local MLA Koneru Konappa, and others participated in the inauguration of the statue on June 5. Konappa invited chief minister Chandrashekar  Rao to the event.

Buddhist religious elders and ‘Boudha Bikkus’ performed rituals during the inauguration of the statue.

According to rough estimates, there are nearly 45,000 Dalit votes in Sirpur (T) assembly constituency. BSP president RS Praveen recently announced that he was ready to contest from the same constituency in the next assembly elections if local people blessed him.

Arshad Hussein, assembly constituency-in-charge, said political leaders were playing games when elections approached, to attract the Dalits (Buddhists) whose population is sizable in the constituency.

He recalled that the sitting MLA inaugurated the Buddha statue before the elections only after BSP gained strength and that BSP president RS Praveen regularly visited the villages as he planned to contest from there. He said the Buddha statue works had actually started in 2014 but no work was done all these years.

Harshad Hussein said Praveen would be contesting from the Sirpur (T) in the next elections and will be touring the villages in the constituency from July 8 to 18.