Parties try to woo Reddy community ahead of polls

HYDERABAD: Violent incidents witnessed at the Reddy community’s public meeting on Sunday which led to an attack on labour minister Chamakura Malla Reddy woke up the Reddy community to assert their caste and political dominance in the run up to Assembly polls due for next year.

Both the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) and Opposition Congress and the BJP are vying with each other to galvanise the support of Reddy community against the backdrop of Malla Reddy incident.

The TRS is rallying behind Malla Reddy saying that he was targeted for no fault of his but the party is apprehensive on booking police cases against Reddys fearing backlash from the community.

Animal husbandry minister Talasani Srinivas Yadav on Monday strongly defended Malla Reddy’s speech in the public meeting highlighting the welfare schemes being implemented by the TRS government for the benefit of various castes and religions.

“Malla Reddy was only trying to tell what the TRS government has been doing for the benefit of all castes and religions including Reddys for the last eight years. He was unnecessarily targetted. The government will not spare anyone who resorted to the attack on the minister. All the culprits will be booked.”

The Congress, on the other hand, argues that it was not an attack on Malla Reddy but it was an attack on the TRS government and Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao for ditching Reddy community on the promise of setting up a Reddy Corporation with a budget of `5,000 crore to uplift the poor among Reddys.

The BJP also termed the attack as a revolt against the TRS government for cheating the Reddy community. BJP’s Huzurabad MLA Etala Rajender said,

“The attack on Malla Reddy is not a personal one but it is the hatred of people against the TRS government. Sensing that they may not win in the upcoming Assembly elections, the TRS leaders, unlike never before, paid tributes to former chief minister of the united Andhra Pradesh N.T.Rama Rao to grab the votes of settlers.”

However, the Reddy community is said to be upset over Malla Reddy praising the Telangana Rashtra Samiti and Chandrashekar Rao in the community meeting for implementing welfare schemes for other castes while saying nothing about what they did for Reddys.

Meanwhile, the police on Monday booked cases under Sections 341, 352, 504, 506, 147 r/w 149 of the IPC and a probe was launched against those who resorted to attacks on Malla Reddy.

Meanwhile, Malla Reddy alleged that TPCC president and Malkajgiri MP A. Revanth Reddy hatched a conspiracy to kill him.

Speaking to media personnel here on Monday, Malla Reddy held Revanth responsible for the attack on him and his convoy late on Sunday when he attended Reddy community's public meeting ‘Reddy Simhagarjana’ in Ghatkesar.

“Revanth Reddy, who is currently in the US, has hatched a conspiracy to kill me. He sent his followers to the Reddy Simhagarjana public meeting to attack me and my convoy with stones, footwear and chairs. He sent over 100 criminals to the meeting in the garb of participants with the sole purpose of killing me. Revanth resorted to this criminal act because I am strongly questioning and resisting his blackmailing politics," Malla Reddy stated.

He alleged that Revanth was blackmailing him for over eight years, even when they were together in the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) in 2014 and 2015. "I took up his blackmailing politics to the notice of TDP president Chandrababu Naidu several times then but he too was helpless and did not initiate any action against Revanth," Malla Reddy claimed.