TDP First List Of Candidates: Kammas Get Lion’s Share

Vijayawada: The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) has allotted 32 seats to the Kamma community, being true to its image of patronizing them. At Present, the assembly has over 33 Kamma legislators representing various political parties.

TDP Chief Chandrababu Naidu has released 126 candidates names for the 175-member assembly late on Thursday. The backward classes got 31 seats even after them being 37% of the population, which includes 143 traditional caste groups. Kammas constitute only 4.8% of the population.

18 seats were given to SC communities, 4 for STs and 2 for Muslims. Most of the listed Kamma candidates were from Krishna and Guntur districts that form the new capital region.

In the first list, Chandrababu Naidu gave 83 tickets to sitting candidates. Women got over 11% of the seats which comes up to 15 out of the 126. The open category cast groups overall got 72 seats.

In 13 segments, new faces were given a chance. Fourteen YSRC MLAs who defected to the TD were also given tickets in the first list. Chandrababu Naidu is likely to release the names of the pending 49 segments in a day or two.

The Kammas seem to be the most sought-after faces foremost political parties from the Captial region. Be it the YSRCP, Jana Sena or TDP, all the main political parties are wooing this influential caste into their fold.

Even though their representation is lesser than 5%, wealthy Kammas have a lot of influence in most of the constituencies in both the districts.

While the TD has always been traditionally identified with Kammas, YSRCP chief YS Jagan Mohan Reddy too wants Kamma faces from the two districts in his party.

Currently, of the total 34 assembly constituencies in both Krishna and Guntur districts, more than 1/4th are represented by Kamma MLAs from political parties like the TD, YSRC and BJP.

Also Read: Kammas Up In Arms Against Congress