In Nagarkurnool, all is second to Telangana song

NAGARKURNOOL: The Telangana issue may be on the back burner in Mahbubnagar, but 50 km away, it is very much the topic in the air in Nagarkurnool, which is among six seats in the region that will go to the bypolls on March 18.That’s because of the presence in the fray of Nagam Janardhan Reddy, the incumbent MLA who staked his political future by walking out of the TDP.He has come a long way from being brutally beaten up by Telangana separatists on the Osmania University campus two years ago.Today, he is the main votary of separate statehood in Mahbubnagar district.The fact that this byelection was caused by his voluntary resignation from the Assembly adds to the ‘martyr’ factor.The rotund politician has been in overdrive in the villages of Nagarkurnool even before the bypoll was called.He has roped in the services of two folk bands led by T Sai Chand to whip up the Sentiment at his stump meetings.The shows are called Dhoom Dhaam, and they have proved to be very popular, drawing audiences away from TV sets in the evenings.Entire villages turn up to hear the 25-strong bands sing of yearning for Telangana and how the Congress, TDP and CPM have betrayed that dream.The songs steer clear of saying anything about Sonia Gandhi but make a pointed mention of Chandrababu Naidu’s twoeyed theory.The audience sings along and demand encores.After the songs, Nagam ascends the stage to say his thing.It’s all about how he’s given his all for Telangana and how he tried to nag Chandrababu Naidu to keep his promise of support to a separate state.But after the songs, the speech is a come down.Said one voter, K Ramana Rao, at a Dhoom Dhaam show in a village near this town, “We don’t care about the leaders, the songs are good enough to make us want a separate state.” The TDP is doing the Dhoom Dhaam too, trying brave to inveigle the TDP into the hearts and minds of voters here.They too sing of Telangana statehood demand and they sign off with slogans of ‘Jai Telangana, Jai Chandrababu Naidu!’ Somehow, from the mouth of a party that has parsed itself into a corner in Telangana, the songs and the slogans sound incongruous.The Congress has no Dhoom Dhaam band here, and therefore its pitch is all about welfare schemes undertaken, funds sactionied, work done, promises to be kept.All very sarkari, like the principal’s speech at the school annual.