From a presenter of a satirical news bulletin “Teenmaar News” on V6 news channel during the Telangana agitation, Naveen, popularly known as Teenmaar Mallanna has emerged as the focal point of anti-TRS voters in the Graduate MLC elections given his stupendous performance.
Not many expected him to put up such a stellar performance as he was an Independent without the support of any major political party and more so given the poor votes he secured a year back in the Huzurnagar by-elections. But his constant attack on the government, and more so on Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao through his Youtube channel seem to have given him the opportunity to expand his support base.
A senior TRS leader, on condition of anonymity, expressed the view that Mallanna’s only strength has been attacking the government without any compromise and the party needs to seriously introspect on how an individual is making a difference where the major opposition parties could not.
Representative of college managements association, who was actively involved in the MLC elections in support of the TRS too was surprised by the support to Teenmaar Mallanna at the ground level.
“Despite the government revealing with data on the 1.30 lakh jobs given by the TRS, youngsters are not willing to believe that figure. This group had more belief in Mallanna than the government despite the authentic data,” he said. “TRS needs to work hard to change this negative perception.”
What made Mallanna extremely popular in a section of people is his bold style of reporting laced with satire, though many may not approve his personal attack on the Chief Minister and his family. Yet, they all identify with the issues he raise. “This voice needs to be kept alive and we decided to support him to keep a check on the government,” says Venkatraju, an alumnus of OU and a traditional Congress party supporter.
Mallanna’s success in making it to the second place in the Warangal-Nalgonda-Khammam Graduates constituency was because he could break into the ranks of all political parties purely on issues. As he himself declared after the result that people seem to have lost the confidence in political parties and forces like him will fill up the gap. “So people across party lines voted for me and there will be an end to traditional politics.”
The journalist-politician also exploited the anger among the downtrodden communities about the political power confining to a few sections, and also fewer sections among the downtrodden. The Non-Resident Telugus had been a huge support base of him and they quite openly campaigned in his support on the social media apart from contributing to his campaign costs.
