Goodbye to Reds in season of Bhakthi

ADILABAD: The BJP did well in the elections in areas that were formerly Maoist strongholds or extremist-affected areas, especially the coal belt in Bellampalli, Chennur, Mancherial and Manthani segments of the Peddapalli LS constituency.

The BJP also penetrated interior areas of these assembly constituencies in the last 10 years. From militancy, the mood among the youths have dramatically changed to 'bhakthi' in recent years.

Koyyala Emaji of Bellampalli, who is now working as BJP state executive member, and defeated candidate in the 2018 assembly elections, said there was no impact of the Naxalites on the coal belt areas in the last 15 years. People, especially the youths in both urban, rural and interior areas, were attracted to the BJP and pinned their faith in Narendra Modi.

However, Emaji said the performance of the BJP was poor in the last two assembly elections. The party gradually increased its strength and gave a tough fight to their rivals in the 2024 parliament elections.

He said the impact of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and construction of the Ramalayam in Ayodhya was visible in the coal belt areas.

BJP candidate Sogala Kumar got only 92,606 votes in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections whereas its candidate Gomasa Srinivas got 342871 votes in the present elections in Peddapalli LS.

The BJP got 32577 votes in the Bellampalli assembly segment, 33775 in Chennur, 59644 votes in Mancherial, 68766 votes in Peddapalli and 32634 votes in Manthani assembly segment now. There was a huge surge in the votes for the BJP in the LS elections, compared to the last assembly polls.

The impact of the BJP winning four assembly seats in erstwhile Adilabad district is evident on the Adilabad and Peddapalli LS constituencies in the present elections. Many places in these constituencies were once strongholds of Naxalites and Sikasa (Singareni Karmika Samakya affiliated to the Communist Party of India (Maoist).

The BJP high command also concentrated on the former strongholds of Naxalites and made serious efforts to make inroads into villages and towns of the coal belt. The CPIM and CPI and their frontal organisations were also strong in the coal belt areas. CPI leader, the late Gunda Mallesh, was elected thrice from Bellampalli and was floor leader in the state assembly. The AITUC, affiliated with CPI, was strong among the Singareni workers and it was the elected, recognized trade union there.

In the early 1980s, the first dalam of the CPI People’s War entered Aheri of Maharashtra, crossing River Godavari. Peddishankar, Gajjala Gangaram, Saroja, and many others were the first Maoists to join the underground activities from the coal belt area.

Peddishankar was a native of Bellampalli town. Many Singareni workers and their young children joined the Maoists from the coal belt area in the 1980s, 1990s and later. Katakam Sudarshan, a politburo member of the CPI (Maoist) central committee was a native of Bellampalli and he died of cardiac arrest on May 31, 2023.

It was quite visible that the youth who used to sing revolutionary songs in the 1980s, 90s and at the start of the new century were later attracted to ‘Bhakti’ and took Deeksha of Hanuman and Ayyappa and many other dekshas in the coal belt areas.

The situation gradually started changing in the coal belt area.

A section of the youth who used to sing Gaddar’s revolutionary songs had started singing devotional songs and listening to them while travelling in private vehicles or on their journeys, with images of gods and goddesses later.