The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Migrant labourers hold the key in drought-hit constituencies

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Apr 13, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Migrant labourers hold the key in drought-hit constituencies

By N. Rahul

GADWAL, APRIL 12. Elections in these parts of Mahabubnagar district promise to be a keen tussle between money power and caste equations. The polls in Gadwal and Kollapur Assembly segments have always earned notoriety for heavy rigging due to the departure of migrant labour affected by recurring drought.

With an estimated 50,000 labourers leaving Gadwal in search of work in the adjoining Raichur taluk in Karnataka, the three major candidates for the local seat are using their might to bring the labourers back from Amareshwar camp and Gangavati in Raichur for voting. Otherwise, it will be back to rigging. The candidates will have to pump in a lot of money to woo the voters, affected as they are by drought. Their main source of income in these days is only sale of leaves used for making plates.

Labourers from Gattu and Dharur mandals in Gadwal segment, which are the worst affected by drought in the entire district, have left in large numbers from every village to find work during the ongoing harvesting in fields irrigated by the Gangavati canal of Tungabhadra. They are not expected to return until the rabi crop is harvested next month. It is under these circumstances that the three major candidates in the fray, Gattu Bheemudu of TDP, D.K. Aruna (Ind) and N. Venkataramulu (TRS), will try to send trucks to bring home the voters from Raichur.

Ms. Aruna will also have to grapple with the caste factor, which goes against the upper castes in the constituency. She is a Reddy but Mr. Bheemudu belongs to the Boya (Valmiki) community, who outnumber others, and Mr. Venkataramulu is a Kurma. The Kurmas have resolved to vote for Mr. Venkataramulu in Alur village of Gattu mandal as this was a rare occasion when the community was considered worthy of fighting the elections by any party.

The profile of Gadwal revenue division shows that there is no second crop in almost all the villages due to lack of irrigation sources. The villages here also received one of the least rainfalls in the State. As a result, 50 to 60 per cent of the population in villages cross the inter-State border, 20 km. away, migrate to Karnataka to find work.

A villager of Raipuram in Gattu mandal, G. Thimmappa, said even for the single sowing which they took up at the onset of the monsoon, they preferred to go for dry crops like jowar which required little water.

The completion of the Nettempad lift irrigation scheme to irrigate Gattu, Dharur and three other mandals in Gadwal and Alampur Assembly segments has been the promise of every political party since 1980.

But, it was only on February 20 last that the Chief Minister, N. Chandrababu Naidu, laid the stone for the project although Mr. Bheemudu promised to do it prior to the 1999 Assembly polls. Ms. Aruna, who contested the last Assembly election on a Congress ticket, promised a `green revolution' in a year if she was elected.

The current election is seeing the alignment of forces of Ms. Aruna and her brother-in-law, D.K. Samarasimha Reddy. Both had contested for the Gadwal seat last time (Mr. Reddy as an independent) and split the Opposition vote, helping Mr. Bheemudu win.

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