Amaravati: TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu has repeatedly claimed that the Telugu Desam Party was established to uplift the downtrodden and weaker sections of society, and to promote social justice. However, his actions have consistently favored the upper castes when it comes to selecting candidates. The recent announcement of candidates for the forthcoming elections in the state has unmasked the priorities of the opposition leader. A cursory look at the declared candidates list will reveal that the TDP has once again ignored the leaders belonging to weaker and marginalized sections.

The TDP’s candidates’ list for 128 legislative assembly seats is lacking social justice. Yet again, Naidu has allocated seats to members of his own community and to the rich and influential candidates from other communities. The opposition party has denied tickets to aspirants from Backward Classes (BCs), Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs), and minority groups. On the other hand, the ruling YSRCP has allocated half of the seats to BCs, SCs, STs, and minorities which demonstrates that chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy’s priority lies with uplifting the marginalized and underprivileged sections of society.

The TDP chief reiterates that his party stands for the upliftment of the BCs, however, the selection of poll candidates shows that Naidu has sidelined the community. Out of the 128 seats announced, 72 were allocated to the candidates from OCs, and only 24 to the BCs. In the first list, 18 seats were given to the BCs while in the second list, merely 6 seats were allocated to them. Naidu has allocated 28 seats to his own community while the Kapu community gets only 8 seats for the upcoming polls.

The TDP supremo, who had allocated 43 seats to Backward Class communities in the 2019 assembly elections, has now reduced the allocation of seats to only 24, effectively indicating their decreasing priority within the party. As for the reserved seats, 25 were allocated to SCs and 4 to STs in accordance with the reservation policy.

The party has allocated only three seats to the minority community while women candidates were not given the desired representation as merely 17 seats have been allotted to them. Analysts argue that the distribution of seats clearly indicates that Babu has blatantly disregarded social principles of equity and justice. Naidu, who is contesting in 144 assembly seats as part of an alliance with the Jana Sena and BJP, is yet to announce candidates for the remaining 16 seats.

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