Adivasi vow to defeat BJP candidates in agency areas

VISAKHAPATNAM: BJP nominating Pangi Raja Rao as its candidate from Araku assembly constituency has further angered Adivasis in ASR district. They had already been upset when the ruling party at the centre announced Kothapalli Geetha as the BJP candidate from Araku parliamentary constituency.

The tribal people have vowed to defeat both the candidates, saying this should serve as a warning to alliance partners; that leaders with ulterior motives cannot be given an opportunity to represent Adivasi people in legislative bodies.

The announcement of Geetha candidature by BJP has come as a surprise. It has come after the Telangana High Court granted a stay on her five-year jail term awarded by a CBI court in a bank fraud case last year.

AP High Court had also granted an interim stay on implementation of GO No. 2, which cancelled the scheduled tribe caste certificate issued to the BJP candidate.

“Bharatiya Janata Party wants non-tribals to be in the parliament, so that the party can help corporate bodies exploit forest wealth with ease,” said Adivasi Joint Action Committee (JAC) convener Rama Rao Dora.

He condemned BJP’s decision to nominate Geetha after she had allegedly defrauded a public sector bank of ₹42 crore. Her husband belongs to the Kamma group. He had designs to mine bauxite in the agency area when Geetha had been an MP from 2014 to 2019, the tribal leader said.

He maintained that all Adivasis are unanimously against Geetha, as they want a genuine tribal candidate to represent Adivasis from the lone Araku Lok Sabha seat reserved for scheduled tribes in Andhra Pradesh.

Rama Rao Dora feared that if elected, Geetha will facilitate others non-tribals in getting ST. He pointed out that the state government has already passed a resolution to include Boya Valmiki and Bentho Oriya into the ST list.

He went on to accuse BJP of being anti-tribal, as it had enacted the Forest (Conservation) Amendment Act 23, which abolished grama sabhas.

“Grama sabhas prevented Vedanta in Odisha. Subsequently, they countered efforts of the then AP government to start mining bauxite in Jerrela areas of ASR district,” the tribal leader underlined.

Another tribal activist M. Rajababu pointed out that Adivasi organisations like Andhra Vanavasi Kalyan Ashram and Jana Jathi Suraksha Manch have opposed the candidature of Kothapalli Geetha. But BJP has ignored their pleas.

He said all Adivasi unions and federations will soon convene a meeting and announce an action plan against the nomination of Kothapalli Geetha and Pangi Raja Rao from Araku.

Donnu Dora, whose name had been announced in the first list by TD president N. Chandrabau Naidu, said there is no chance of BJP winning from the agency areas.

“Even if the alliance partners take advantage of all machinery, they don’t stand a chance of winning the elections,’’ Dora told reporters on Thursday.