Keen on replicating its success with Matua community of West Bengal which backed the party to the hilt in the past two General and Assembly elections, the BJP in Telangana is actively wooing the marginalise6d Madiga community among the Scheduled Castes.

Just like the Matuas, who had fled East Pakistan, want citizenship documents and hence tilted en masse towards the BJP in West Bengal, the Madigas are demanding categorization within Scheduled Caste (SC) reservation. The three decades long struggle for the demand for SC sub-categorisation emerged because some of the influential sections of Dalit community, namely the Malas disproportionately benefit from SC reservation although the numerically stronger Madigas are economically, socially and politically more marginalized within SCs.

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The BJP began its experimentation with social engineering in poll bound states with Uttar Pradesh and tasted success. It did the same in West Bengal, promising citizenship documents to the Matuas and hit the jackpot in General Elections-2019 and it propelled the BJP into being the key Opposition party in the state.

In Telangana, it hopes to do the same after Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed a rally of Madiga Reservation Porata Samithi (MRPS), where he promised to set up a panel to look into the demand for sub-catagorisation of the Madigas.

Telangana BJP spokesperson NV Subhash said: “The Prime Minister has promised a task force which will monitor the proceedings of the case in Supreme Court and once resolved we want to go for an ordinance to implement it. This is not vote bank politics. The Prime Minister wants to resolve this three decades long issue. This is for our commitment to inclusive growth.”

Dalits form 18-19 per cent of the population in Telangana and out of 119 Assembly constituencies, 19 are reserved for them along with three MP seats. The BJP decided to woo the Madigas who form 60 per cent of the SC population of the state and harbour grievances.

Another BJP leader confided: “Even Madigas who support the Congress and BRS attended the meeting of the Prime Minister. Unlike the past SCs are now owning us. Coupled with the promise of making a BC leader the next chief minister we believe the promise to look into subcategorization of SC reservation will pay rich dividends to BJP in the polls.”

The sight of Prime Minister Narendra Modi comforting an emotional MRPS leader Manda Krishna Madiga was an abiding one and the Saffron party also hopes to reap the benefits in the Lok Sabha election, 2024 as well.

However, the BJP might be meeting the OBC census challenge thrown by the Congress with its own brand of social engineering but political analysts are sceptical about its impact on the Assembly Polls.

“Post Karnataka polls, the BJP is not doing well in Telangana as before and hence there is doubt how far this will impact the polls. Moreover, many are disappointed with the announcement of a committee instead of straight way commitment to the sub-catagorisation of SCs,” said poll analyst CR Gowri Shanker.