The importance of Telugu-speaking voters in the current Assembly election in Maharashtra has had political parties ‘deploying’ leaders from Telangana State for campaigning in constituencies bordering Adilabad district.
Campaigners from the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress in Telangana are wooing Telugu-speaking voters in the constituencies of Kinwat, Wani and Rajura where some of the candidates themselves boast of strong relations with this district.
Take for instance, the BJP candidate in Kinwat, Ashok Patil Suryavanshi, the grandson of freedom fighter Devrao Patil Suryavanshi, who spent his childhood in Jainoor mandal headquarters in Adilabad district. BJP Telangana State president G. Kishan Reddy and senior leader Bandaru Dattatreya have already campaigned for their party candidate in villages in Maharashtra bordering Sarangapur mandal in this district.
As the Nationalist Congress Party has got no presence in Telangana, only the relatives of sitting MLA Pradeep Naik from Adilabad town are campaigning in the Kinwat constituency. The candidate used to live in Adilabad town until he got elected as MLA in 2004.
In the Wani constituency, the BJP has fielded Bothkurwar Sanjeev Reddy, a leader whose close relations living in Adilabad are campaigning for him in the Telugu-speaking villages of Lingti, Ardhavan, Mukutban, Sagda, Dhanora, Airelly, Shetpalli, Kammarvelli and Mandvi bordering Jainad mandal. Similarly, Congress leaders, including Adilabad District Congress Committee president C. Ramchander Reddy and former Adilabad Market Committee chairman Yasam Narsing Rao, are likely to participate in campaigning for the sitting MLA, Waman Rao Kasawar, in Wani, whose in-laws belong to Kouta in Jainad.
The Reddy voters exercise some influence in this constituency which is evident from the fact that it has been included in the list of Backward Classes last year by the government. The presence of Telugu voters is also sizable in the constituencies of Chandrapur and Varora.
In Gadhchiroli, the NCP candidate, Dharma Rao Baba Atram, a former Minister and member of the Gond royal family, has deep-rooted connections with the tribal areas in the Asifabad and Sirpur constituencies on this side of the border. He had, in fact, demanded merger of his constituency with Telangana when the bifurcation process was on earlier this year.
