Getting back BC's is real test for Naidu in T

Hyderabad: Weaning away a substantial chunk of Backward Castes from the separatist movement is going to be the real challenge for the Telugu Desam Party supremo Chandrababu Naidu in Telangana in the next one year.

It is essential for him not only to win sizeable number of seats in the 2014 Assembly elections in that region but also for possible recapturing of power at the state level.

Chandrababu, an acknowledged political tactician, knows this too well and hence his bold venturing into the troublesome arena recently. In Telangana, BCs have been the TDP's backbone right from its formation.

With a strong grievance of being sidelined in the Congress, they were a willing game to the overtures of NTR when he created an alternative political forum to that party.

Being a numerical bastion of BCs, the region has a history of resenting dominant classes/castes and the new party had cleverly cosied up itself into this groove.

Ever since the BCs have not only remained with TDP through thick and thin but in the absence of Kamma community in Telangana, the party in that area actually earned the sobriquet of 'BC party'.

The first real threat this BC base of TDP has encountered is from the separate Telangana movement.

Much akin to the feelings of other communities (upper as well as lower) of the area, BCs too have come to believe that their future will be assured only when they administer their own region.

If the youth in general and urbanized among them in particular linked education, jobs and entrepreneurial opportunities with this cause, their elders thought of issues such as water resources related to rural economy.

The sustained campaigns by the TRS and the Political JAC reinforced this thought process, resulting in the BCs fast moving away from the TDP, particularly after the 2009 elections.

With no other communities being as adherent as BCs to Telugu Desam, this proved to be a tectonic social shift for Chandrababu's party. Its new realities were demonstrated when the party which put up an admirable show in 2009 general elections, lost deposits for all the 12 Assembly by-polls the very next year. That calamitous setback must have made the party chief to sit up and think seriously.

Needless to say, he must have realised that unless the BCs were reattracted into the party fold and further alienation was arrested forthwith, TDP would have no prospects in Telangana and consequently the chances of an overall majority get bleak.

The recent failure to gather courage even to put up a candidate for Banswada by-election and its fallout may have strengthened this idea.

In fact, pulling back their youth and masses into the party has become a desperate necessity even for the top ranking BC leaders of TDP For, unless that done, even their own future would be on the block.

With such convergence of interests, now one can see both Chandrababu and the BC leaders of Telangana making all out efforts to reach the masses of the region braving protests and brickbats.

However, these BC leaders admit off the record that their task is not going to be easy. With the idea of 'We Deciding Our Own Destiny' taking deep roots in the minds and hearts of Telangana youth and masses, this existentialist regional identity appears to have submerged all other identities, including the three-decade-old loyalties towards TDP.

It was this strong bond with the cause that made them commit suicides on an unprecedented scale. It is this peculiar situation thrown up by the vortex of regional struggles that makes it a real challenge for Chandrababu to regain the lost 'BC ground' of Telangana.

Nonetheless, it is imperative for his come-back dreams. The real aim of all his sabre-rattling there now in the name of farmers' woes and other issues is nothing but winning back the targeted segment of BCs.