Beyond Caste: How Kammas Voted for Vangaveeti Radha!

Why Kamma Community Is Politically Relevant Despite Less Than 5% Population!

The Kamma Community in Andhra Pradesh is less than 5% of the total population. But then, the state was under a Kamma Chief Minister for approximately 23 years 9 months after its formation in 1956.

There are Strong Kamma Leaders in important positions in all the parties and they enjoy significant power irrespective of which party rules. Their influence is considerably less only in Jagan’s five years tenure.

Many question complain how a smaller community yields so much political power despite small population.

The answer lies in the just concluded Vijayawada Municipal Corporation elections.

Chandrababu Naidu gave the seat to Janasena and also sent Vengaveeti Radha from the party to contest from there.

There were rumors that Jagan wanted to field Devineni Avinash’s wife from there. So that the contest becomes fierce due to the Kamma-Kapu rivalry and the old family feud between both the families. But Devineni Avinash did not agree.

But then, Former IPS AB Venkateswara Rao entered the fray to divide the Kamma Voters and defeat the alliance candidate.

During his tenure, Jagan hounded ABV as he felt the latter helped Chandrababu as the Intelligence Chief during CBN’s regime.

He was troubled with cases and no posting until the last-minute. He had to retire in posting at the last minute that too with the help of the Court.

ABV expected Home Minister berth in this government to take revenge but Chandrababu refused. So he is seeking revenge in Vijayawada Municipal Corporation election.

He expected that Kamma Voters of Vijayawada will vote for him en masse thereby dividing the votes of Vangaveeti Radha.

He thought Kammas will sympathize with him for his tussle with Jagan Mohan Reddy and also because the seat was given to a Kapu candidate like Vangaveeti Radha.

But then, Kammas have shown amazing Political Awareness. They put the overall interests of the community above everything and voted as per the party line.

ABV came a distant third with just 12,657 votes.

This is a fine example of how Kammas approach Politics. They did not harbor hate over Radha and saw him as their party man and at the same time, did not prioritize ABV because of something that happened in the past.

They always prioritize the larger interests over smaller issues. That is why a community of just less than 5% population is politically so significant.