Hyderabad: Kannadigas living in Telangana were now much sought after, especially by politicians, ahead of the Karnataka elections. In the recent days, political parties, especially Congress, had been meeting the community of eight lakh seeking their support through votes.
Congress MLAs in Karnataka held talks with their party leaders in Telangana to seek votes from Kannadigas based in Hyderabad.
The sops offered were a separate Kannada Bhavan in TS and job opportunities, if the community supported the Congress in the coming elections.
The predominant castes belonging to Karnataka spread out in Telanagana were Vokkaligas (Gowda), Lingayats and Kurubas, apart from SC/STs. Balija and Kannada Brahmins had only a small presence.
Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah was a Kurubar, said Telangana-Karnataka PCC general secretary Anthony Promod.
“The Congress is seeking support from the Vokkaligas in TS. While Northern Karnataka is a belt of Lingayat, the southern is of Gowdas and Kurubas. There are 8 lakh Kannadigas in the city, which approximately accounts for 9–10 per cent of the city population. Most of the Kannadigas are from North Karnataka, especially from the Hyderabad-Karnataka districts of Gulbarga, Bidar, Raichur, and Yadgir,” he said.
Sources revealed that Congress MLAs, especially from Mahadevapura, Rajajinagar, Maleshwaram and Vijaynagar which had the cream of IT clan, based in Hyderabad, held talks with Telangana-Karnataka PCC seeking support.
Recently A.C. Srinivas, the Karnataka Congress MLA from Mahadevapura who was likely to contest again, held a meeting with Telangana Congress leaders and offered sops if the community supported him.
A sizable number of software engineers from Bengaluru and other parts of Karnataka had made the city their home.
Apart from these young professionals, many Kannadigas had settled down in the city as it was also the capital of the Hyderabad-Karnataka region during the Nizam’s rule. Besides software employees, the community was also well known in hotel business.
