Rise of Munnuru Kapu Caste Politicians in Telangana

Munnuru Kapu caste has been active in politics since preindependence era. There have been cases or rather brave stories of Munnuru Kapu families chasing away feudal lords from villages like in the areas of Nalgonda. However, the Munnuru Kapus were not able to play the top roles in any of the political parties nor they were able to get hold on the top chair. Leaders like Dharmapuri Srinivas , Keshava Rao, V Hanumanth Rao were able to reach top leadership but they could not depict themselves but just remain as deputy or shadows of the other OC caste leaders. For Ex: Dharmapuri Srinivas was PCC president during Y.S R. Reddy’s Tenure , therefore he could only enjoy little dominance over the party and that too in Telangana region.

Though there are around 7-8 leaders ( MLA and MPs )from TRS party since 2014, their role is very limited in the party. The Congress senior leader who switched to TRS Mr. K Keshava Rao had remained silent ever since he joined the TRS. Munnuru Kapu Leaders have been winning elections from all the leading parties since decades but except Dharmapuri Srinivas , no one could reach the top league of leaders and be in the race of Chief minister. This was a huge disappointment for Munnuru Kapus for decades.

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D . Srinivas

Dharmapuri srinivas from Nizamabad was stalwart Leader in Congress party and he has the record of bringing Congress party to the power twice during 2004-2009 as Congress party president.

Though he was a Chiefminister candidate in the party, he was not opted for the chiefminister post by the congress high command due to the regionalism factor in Telugu states. Since he was a Telanganite, the congress party expected huge uproar from the Andhra leaders if he is made the chief minister. So after the demise of Y.S.RajaSekhar Reddy , Sonia Gandhi chose Rosaiah and Kiran Kumar Reddy ( both OC caste leaders from Andhra ) ignoring the BC leader of Telangana. Kiran Kumar Reddy was much junior and a mere low profile leader from Rayalaseema who was made the CM and this was a huge insult to the Senior BC leaders .

Munnuru Kapus thought it was a mere discrimination on them as Congress preferred OCs over them.

Tables turned around for Munnuru Kapus in the Telangana region. They almost moved away from the shadow role under a Mighty Reddy or other OC rule. Thanks to the Karminagar Assembly and Parliament elections 2018-19 respectively as they gave birth to new leadership in the BJP. Mr. Bandi Sanjay belongs the Munnuru Kapu Community and he gained huge fame after losing the election to TRS Candidate with small margin in Karimnagar MLA elections 2018.

Bandi Sanjay

Clippings of his followers crying on the results announce date evening and the Teasing Attack of MIM party on Bandi’s house had made him state wide leader over the night. BJP high Command recognised his growing stature and allotted Parliament ticket of karimnagar with in 2 months of losing.

He Won with Thumping Majority against the KCR relative and giant “Boinapally Vinod Rao” in the MP elections from Karimnagar.

Sanjay used this opporunity carefully and won the MP seat from Karimnagar by defeating the strong Velama ( OC ) Candidate ( Relative of KCR ) . This made him garner the attention of Central High Command of BJP and his growing following in the state made him the BJP State president of Telangana. The central committee had opted Bandi Sanjay as President of Telangana state BJP over the other options like Kishan Reddy , Jithendar Reddy and other OC leaders.

Dharmapuri Aravind emerged as another strong leader in BJP Telangana from Munnuru Kapu Caste.

The other sensation of 2019 Parliament elections was former Veteran Congress leader Dharmapuri Srinivas’s son Mr.Dharmapuri Aravind. He beat the daughter of Chiefminister in Parliament elections from the Nizamabad Constituency. Aravind grew stronger and gained huge following among the youth of telangana with his consistency in attacking the KCR family by pointing out their political failures.

Aravind has gained the fame of a leader who uses extensive data to counter attack the allegations made by opposition. Whether it is fund allocation , usage of funds, corruption or other aspects , Dharmapuri Aravind is known to use factual data to counter attack the opposition and this made the educated Telangana admiring him as a future leader.

KCR appointing Gadwal Lakshmi as Mayor of Hyderabad – A Step to lure BJP tilting Munnuru Kapus?

The loss of over 40+ sitting Corporation seats to BJP was a huge set back for the ruling TRS party. BJP rose from 0 in 2015 to 44 in 2020. This made KCR to rethink his social engineering. The Gulabi Boss had then realised that Munnuru Kapus are around 11% in the state population and against all the expectations , he selected “Munnuru Kapu Caste Corporator Gadwal Lakshmi ” as the Mayor of Hyderabad. She is also the daughter of the TRS senior leader and Former Congress Veteran K.Keshava Rao.

This step of chosing a woman corporator and that against the tradition of sharing Mayor seat with MIM was broken by KCR and against all odds , he picked a Munnuru Kapu Woman. This act was considered by analyst to counter BJP tactics of attracting Munnuru Kapus and pass out a signal that TRS too is giving huge importance to this community.

Munnuru Kapu TRS leaders are playing tactful politics and maintaining silence in attacking BJP leaders.

The Munnuru Kapu BJP leaders like Jogu Ramanna , Danam Nagender, Gangula Kamalakar,Korukanti Chander, vanama Venkateshwar rao, Jajula Surender, Dasyam Vinaya Bhaskar, etc have not raised their voices or seen counter attacking the BJP leaders.

All the above leaders of TRS belong to Munnuru Kapu Caste but they never have seen counter attacking BJP Leaders except Gangula Kamalakar that too he was rarely seen alleging or replying to Bandi Sanjay comments.

Munnuru Kapus are the strong and rising community in the Telangana. They grew economically strong in the last few decades. Since Congress favours Reddys in Telugu states and has the history of Pampering Reddys since Independence, and the BRS being the Dynasty party of KCR who belongs to Velama caste , BJP started working on grooming BC leaders in the state.

The other OC communities like Brahmins and Vyshya are not so strong and are not often seen actively in politics. Therefore, BJP politics are much revolving around the Backward caste leaders.