Where violence is a way of life

Former chief minister K Vijayabhaskar Reddy himself was considered a faction leader. Cuddapah MP YS Rajasekhar Reddy controls various factions in his home district and almost every major political party or group in the region has at some time or the other taken the help of local factions.

Many families here have stories that read like a Senecan revenge play. The core theme is the same and the cycle of murders continues and family feuds go on for decades till there are no men to fight the battles. For instance, the feud between the Kotla family and that of KE Madanna in Kurnool district has been going on for the past six decades.

Among the `terrors’ in the region was P Siva Reddy of Jammalamadugu in Cuddapah district. When he was killed by rivals in the heart of the capital in 1993, the Telugu Desam under the leadership of NT Rama Rao decried the politics of violence of Rayalaseema and blamed the then home minister MV Mysoora Reddy for it. To counter the allegations of the Telugu Desam, the Congress paraded before the then governor Krishan Kant about 200 `victims’ of Siva Reddy who were maimed or whose relatives were killed by him.

Six months after Siva Reddy’s death, his son tried to chase and kill Devagudi Narayana Reddy, the Cuddapah district cooperative bank chairman, who was suspected to be behind the murder, but was killed.

The Nandyal MP, BV Nagi Reddy, heads a major faction in the Allagadda area of Kurnool district and has been fighting another MP, Gangula Pratap Reddy. No election takes place in the area without the groups throwing bombs at each other. Nagi Reddy’s father-in-law SV Subba Reddy is a minister in Andhra Pradesh while his wife Shobha is a legislator. She was elected from Allagadda after Nagi Reddy quit the seat to contest the Lok Sabha by-election.

In Anantapur district, faction feuds are confined mainly to the Penukonda and Dharmavaram constituencies and the one between Paritala Ravi and SV Ramana Reddy — which is suspected to have resulted in the Hyderabad blast last fortnight — is a family feud raging for nearly three decades.

Whenever violence erupts, the police book cases and the litigation in the courts goes on for years. In many cases, witnesses or the accused themselves are killed in faction fights. There have not been many cases where the faction leaders have been convicted. An exception could be that of MV Ramana Reddy, a former Telugu Desam legislator convicted for life but set free when the State government gave remission to prisoners when N T Rama Rao returned to power in 1984.

First the factions were funded by arrack contracts. But the faction leaders took to irrigation projects as soon as arrack was banned in the State. Strong-arm methods are used to corner prime contracts and there have been instances in the State capital too where bombs were thrown and rival contractors chased away by Rayalaseema’s gang leaders.

Now, many of the faction leaders have got licences to run liquor shops and make a fast buck by selling liquor smuggled from neighbouring Karnataka. Earlier too, Rayalaseema was known for selling illicit liquor and in Cuddapah, liquor vendors used to ask whether customers wanted the original brand or `Siva Reddy brand’ named after the former Jammalamadugu legislator.

Decades ago, rich landlords, particularly the Reddys, used to head factions but others have taken over. Faction leaders, who used to be panchayat samiti presidents or district-level leaders, have graduated to become MLAs, MPs and even ministers. “Political will is required to curb these gangs. But there is always a lot of pressure on the police and any officer working in the region has to tread cautiously,” says a senior police officer. Former home minister MV Mysoora Reddy, who hails from Cuddapah, feels that if politicians do not interfere and the police is given a free hand to deal sternly with faction leaders indulging in violence, it will have a lot of impact. “Faction leaders have their own prestige. If one of them is kept in police lock-up throughout the night, it will have a sobering effect on him and he may not be able to strut about with a chip on his shoulder,” he says.

“Political parties should keep such characters away and they should not be allowed to take part in elections,” says Ch Vidyasagar Rao, BJP’s floor leader in the Assembly. But who will bell the cat? Both the Congress and the TDP have a number of leaders who are part of Rayalaseema’s gangland politics.