Under normal circumstances, announcement of an election sees political parties woo identified homogeneous groups of voters. In the case of the estimated 3 lakh strong Adivasi voters in Adilabad, Kumram Bheem Asifabad, Mancherial and Nirmal districts, however, the coming election has brought along with it only a crisis of identity.
The aboriginal people look more an isolated lot now what with political outfits, especially opposition parties, ignoring their plea for support in their endeavour to remove Lambada tribe from the list of Scheduled Tribes and secondly get a better representation in allocation of tickets in the coming Assembly election.
“It is evident that the Adivasi movement against Lambada tribe has failed to draw the attention of political parties, including the Telangana Rashtra Samithi, as the latter are more resourceful and numerically strong in the State,” opined a TRS leader as he faced questions on the alleged short shrift being given to the ethnic people.
Different views
The lack of cohesion and unity between different representative organisations of ethnic people came out in the open on September 13 when the Adivasi Hakkula Porata Samiti, better known as Tudum Debba, and the Utnoor Gondwana Panchayat Rai Centre held separate brain storming sessions at Adilabad district headquarters town and Utnoor mandal headquarters. The Tudum Debba was in favour of fielding a candidate from Khanapur (ST) constituency if mainstream parties do not give a ticket to an ethnic candidate but the Rai Centre struck a jarring note by resolving to boycott elections as no political party has supported the ethnic people in their struggle against Lambadas.
It is 11 months since the Raj Gond, Kolam, Pardhan, Thotti, Andh, Koya and Naikpod Adivasis have launched their movement demanding expulsion of Lambada tribe from the list of STs as the process for their inclusion was supposedly incomplete and having gained the status they cornered all the benefits meant for aboriginal tribes.
Tudum Debba State president Soyam Bapu Rao lamented: “No party has committed itself to support our fight for justice.”
Adivasi candidate
The failure to muster support of opposition parties has seemingly not deterred the Tudum Debba which has repeated its appeal to opposition parties, especially the Congress to which it is said to be ‘close’, to nominate Adivasi candidates from Asifabad, Boath and Khanapur Assembly constituencies, all reserved for STs and having more ethnic voters than Lambadas. The argument is that aboriginal people constitute about three-fourths of the nearly 5 lakh tribal population (2011 Census) in former Adilabad.
All political outfits have so far fielded two Lambada and two Raj Gond candidates from the three Assembly and Adilabad Parliamentary seat, also reserved for ST. “We will have our candidate also contest Khanapur constituency as an independent in case the Congress does not concede to our demand,” Mr. Bapu Rao said.