Sircilla Constituency: Textile Hub Deciding KTR's Poll Narrative (image: twitter.com/KTRBRS)
Sircilla is a town and the district headquarters of Rajanna Sircilla district in Telangana. The name “Sircilla” is derived from sirishala (meaning centre of wealth). Located on the banks of Maneru River, the place is popularly known as Textile town due to the presence of large number of power looms, textile processing and dyeing units. The Sircilla assembly constituency (number 29) comprise of six mandals — Sircilla, Yellareddipet, Gambhiraopet, Mustabad, Thangalapally and Veernapally.
According to Election Commission, the constituency consists of 2,90,798 voters — 1,22,920 women, 1,17,872 men and six voters from third gender. Among them, more than 60 per cent population in Sircilla constiute Backward Classes (BC) dominated by the Padmashali community, secondly Mudiraja community and followed by Munnuru-Kapu and Golla-Kuruma community. Following, the SC (Scheduled Castes) and ST (Scheduled Tribe) communities comprise about 20-25 percent of constituency”s total population. In the grouping, SC consists Mala, Madiga, Beda Budaga Jangam, and others, while the ST consists Lambada, Erukala, and others. The remaining population forms forward castes including Velama, Reddy, and other castes, and Muslims and Christians as well.
Currently, four times in a row, the assembly has been represented by Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) working president and Cabinet Minister and B K T Rama Rao. He is the son of BRS supremo and chief minister of Telangana K Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR).
KTR won from Sircilla constituency in 2009, 2010 (by-election), 2014 and 2018. In 2009, he won the assembly election from Sircilla by defeating Independent candidate KK Mahender Reddy with a close margin of just 171 votes. And in 2014, KTR kept the constituency by defeating Congress candidate Konduru Ravinder Rao for a larger margin of over 53,000 votes. In the previous Telangana Assembly Election in 2018, KTR again won the seat with a record number of more than 89,000 votes. In 2018 Assembly election, KTR gathered 70.89% of the vote share, constituting to 125,213 votes. In the second position came Congress” Kondam Karuna Mahender Reddy, with a 20.5% share of the vote, translating to 36,204 vote.
In the upcoming assembly election, his contenders include KK Mahender Reddy (Congress), Rani Rudrama (BJP), and Lagisetty Srinivas (independent). Since its a a weavers-dominated constituency, their votes are significant for any candidates to ensure their victory. Before the formation of Telangana state, suicide among weavers was common incident. Besides, people also migrated to other regions due to lack of work in Sircilla that has also changes. Though with BRS rule over 10 past years, the situation of weavers got much better, yet the incumbent BRS legislator and Industries minister KTR faces disgruntlement from weaver”s community over the faulty implementation of the “Bathukamma Saree” scheme and other special schemes launched for their betterment.
“Bathukamma Saree” scheme began in 2017, with twin objective- to generate employment opportunities for weavers and present small gift to women. The state government places orders to weave Bathukamma sarees, from delegated to the skilled weavers of Siricilla, and offer it as an annual gift to all girls who have reached the age of 18. The scheme provided much support to weavers in crisis, and as per this programme powerloom workers are paid Rs 5,000 per week for 12 hours a day shift. When it was began, there used to be work for 7-8 months, now it was fell down to 3 months, weavers complain. Rise in inflation and cost of living posed rise in expectances of people from the side of government. Besides, powerloom workers raises the inability to get hold of yarn subsidy and benefits from other welfare schemes as their difficulties. Similarly, government”s failure to fulfil the promise of turning powerloom workers as owners is also increasing their disappointment.
This situation places much leverage to the other contestants in the fray. Apparent dissatisfaction gives an edge to Congress and BJP, who approaches weavers with significant poll promises. Congress” Mahender Reddy is facing the fourth time against KTR Congress approached weavers” community with a promise to set up a yarn depot that could solve major problems in Sircilla, and BJP”s Rani Rudrama Reddy is promising a powerloom cluster. Mahender Reddy, also an advocate argues that ruling BRS government took away Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) ration cards given to weavers during the Congress regime. Even plots allotted to the poor weavers in Indira nagar, BY nagar, Sundaranagar, Venkayapet, Rajiv Nagar and Textile park are not registered yet, Deccan Chronicle reports. Rani Rudrama attacks KTR in failure to provide proper civic infrastructure in Sircilla, and also for not being present in the constituency even for 14 days, despite being an MLA for 14 years, Times of India reports. Apart from them, Lagisetty Srinivas, the independent candidate is from the weavers”community, which opens the chances of swinging votes. Also concerning the prospective community distribution of votes, Congress and BJP candidates both belonging to Reddy community possess voter strengthof around 23,000 while KTR”s Velama caste voters are only 4,000 in Sircilla.
In November 30, Rs 1,000 crore textile industry in Sircilla, supporting over 18,000 families going to design the future their candidates, a significant poll narrative indeed.
