Students, intellectuals and retired employees led by academic and writer Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd are rallying behind Karne Shireesha, the Independent candidate who filed her nomination from the Kollapur Assembly constituency in Nagarkurnool district.
About 70-80 people, together with Mr. Ilaiah, left for Kollapur from the Arts College building of Osmania University on Saturday, in a rally of 15 vehicles tied with banners, in order to campaign for Ms. Shireesha.
Widely popular by the name ‘Barrelakka’ after a selfie video she had shot about unemployment issue in the State, Ms. Shireesha is contesting against powerful candidates such as Jupally Krishna Rao from Congress and B. Harshavardhan Reddy from Bharat Rashtra Samithi.
Mr. Rao was the winning candidate in 2014 elections from BRS (then TRS). Mr. Reddy contested from Congress in 2018 elections, and switched parties after he got elected.
Ms. Shireesha, on the other hand, is a 26-year-old Dalit graduate, and one among the lakhs of students waiting for the job notifications from the State government. Vexed with the status of unemployed in Telangana, she did a video where she could be seen grazing buffaloes, which, she explains, was due to absence of job notifications.
After her video went viral on social media platforms, she was slapped with a suo motu case by the police. Very recently, her brothers reportedly were picked up by unidentified persons and beaten up, which is presumed to be due to her decision to contest the polls.
Mr. Ilaiah, who led an entourage of supporters to Kollapur, believes that Ms. Shireesha has an edge over her opponents, based on the support she is receiving during the campaign.
“People loved her. There was tremendous response from aged men and women too, let alone the youth. Youngsters received her with open arms in every locality, senior citizens took her inside their homes, hugged her and kissed her. I have never seen this kind of response earlier,” Mr. Ilaiah shared.
‘Let her win’
He has made an appeal to all her opponents from the mainstream political parties to desist from their respective campaigns and let her win.
“Campaign against her means campaign against all the unemployed youth. She is young, energetic and promises to prevent suicides by the unemployed youth. If she wins, it will be a new moral breakthrough for Indian democracy fraught with money, corruption, and power politics,” Mr. Ilaiah said.
He also urged the unemployed youth to arrive at Kollapur on the polling day to act as her agents at each of the 260 polling stations.
