Hyderabad: The BC Bhavan in Vidyanagar, which very few people in the city knew about, has become quite a centre of attraction.
Large numbers of people from Backward Classes across Telangana districts are thronging to the BC Bhavan to meet BC leader R. Krishnaiah, who is expected to be the Telugu Desam Party's chief ministerial candidate for Telangana state, as the Telugu Desam Party tries to revive its sagging fortunes in the region.
The BC Bhavan is the residence-cum-office of Mr Krishnaiah, who is the president of the AP Backward Classes Welfare Association. The GHMC corporators from the TDP and other parties, local leaders and students from the Backward Classes from Telanagana are making a beeline to the BC Bhavan to extend support to Mr Krishnaiah.
Mr Krishnaiah has not formally joined the TDP as yet, but is expected to do so in a day or two, after the TDP officially announces him as its chief ministerial candidate. The BC voters constitute over 60 per cent of the electorate and the TDP hopes to reap rich dividends by offering the top post to Mr Krishnaiah.
TDP chief N. Chandrababu Naidu has been repeatedly saying for the past few days that he shot “BC Ram Arrow” in the Telangana region which will defeat other parties in the region. Mr Krishnaiah has been fighting for the past 35 years for the rights of BCs and better standards of living through reservations in politics, education and law.
He is credited with securing 6,000 hostels and residential schools for BCs across the state, funded by the state government and offering free education and food. He got the government to agree to this after a series of agitation programmes involving BC students.
Mr Krishnaiah considers his greatest achievement was securing fee reimbursement and scholarships for BC students to pursue professional courses like MBBS, BDS, B.Tech, MBA, MCA etc. Under the scheme, the government pays the students’ fees. The result was a phenomenal growth in enrolment of BC students in professional colleges since 2009.
“Various state governments since 1970s have issued over 2,000 Government Orders providing various benefits to students from BCs, SCs and STs on account of over 7,000 agitation programmes taken up by the AP BC Welfare Association. I strongly believe that education alone can pave the way for the development of BCs. That’s why I concentrated more on students. The agitations have forced the state government to fill lakhs of posts in various departments through the APPSC and other recruitment agencies during the past two decades. Today, I can proudly say that there are at least 100 to 200 people in every village who were benefited by the agitations taken up by our association,” Mr Krishnaiah said.
Though he was offered tickets by various parties and even a Rajya Sabha seat in earlier elections, Mr Krishnaiah stayed away from active politics. However, now he is under pressure from the BC communities to plunge into politics if offered the Chief Minister’s post since it will immensely benefit the BC communities for which Mr Krishnaiah has been fighting since the 1970s.
