BJP’s strategy of fielding an Adivasi candidate instead of a Lambada tribal from Adilabad Parliamentary constituency has paid off.
Its candidate Soyam Bapu Rao, a leader of the 18-month-old Adivasi movement aimed at removing Lambadas from the list of Scheduled Tribes, won by a convincing margin of about 58,493 votes over TRS’ G. Nagesh. A sizable chunk of the votes in his tally of 3,77,194 came from the Adivasi belt.
Political parties observe a convention of fielding two Adivasis and two Lambada contestants from the four seats reserved for Scheduled Tribes in former united Adilabad district which includes three Assembly and one Lok Sabha constituency to strike a balance between the two tribal segments. BJP had fielded Adivasis from Khanapur and Boath and a Lambada from Asifabad Assembly constituency in the December 7 Assembly election and Mr. Bapu Rao for the MP seat which was like breaking convention.
As expected, it turned out to be a triangular contest with the Congress candidate finishing a close third notwithstanding BJP’s convincing win under given circumstances. While Mr. Bapu Rao’s win is being categorised as spectacular, defeat of the TRS candidate stands out like a sore thumb as he performed below par in six out of seven Assembly segments encompassed by the Parliamentary constituency.
TRS conceded lead in Mudhole, Nirmal and Khanapur Assembly segments which were under the charge of Forest Minister A. Indrakaran Reddy and in Adilabad constituency which was the lookout of former Forest Minister and current MLA Jogu Ramanna. The effort put in by the two leaders proved to be of no help.
The Congress candidate bagged a lead of over 30,000 votes in Khanapur segment and remained second in Nirmal after BJP pushed Mr. Nagesh to third position in both the Assembly seats. In the overall tally, Mr. Rathod lagged behind the TRS contestant by 4,640 votes.
The fact that the ruling party in the State had the advantage of incumbency of its legislators in all seven Assembly segments did not help the campaign of Mr. Nagesh. Except for a small lead of 2,527 votes in Asifabad segment over the BJP candidate and of 13,385 votes in Sirpur segment over Congress’ Ramesh Rathod, his performance was not noteworthy.
Mr. Bapu Rao’s win was also aided by the Modi wave seen especially among young voters. The shift in priority of voters from regional to national politics also helped him secure a better tally.
The TRS candidate’s reputation of being inaccessible and his performance as MP also seemed to have marred his chances. Another factor that did not help him was the shift in the stand of Muslim and Lambada voters who evidently did not go with the TRS as they did in the last Assembly election.
