There has been no love lost between the Kammas and the Brahmins ever since NTR came to power.
The TDP founder after becoming the Chief Minister took a series of decisions such as abolishing the posts of Karanams aimed at weakening the community financially.
In fact, the surname of Sharma or Shastri made one ineligible for a government job during the reign of NTR.
Besides, the murder of Pingali Dasaratha Ram for writing against NTR and his side-kick, a media baron, further alienated the Brahmins and Kammas.
Only in the film industry do these two communities work together harmoniously. Had it not been for the 1991 reforms of PV, The Brahmins in all probability would have migrated to other countries or States like their brethren in Tamil Nadu, in the TDP rule.
Traditionally associated with the Congress Party, the Brahmins have never found nor sought representation in the TDP.
Despite their antagonism towards the TDP, many of them voted in 2014 for Chandrababu as they felt it was the need of the hour.
Chandrababu has proved to be a gigantic failure. Also, the Brahmins believe that it was Chandrababu, Lokesh and Murali Mohan’s greed for the Agri Gold lands which led to a healthy company being destroyed.
The souring of relations between Naidu and IYR Krishna Rao and Naidu’s clumsy handling of the Ramana Deekshitulu issue has not helped matters either.
In 2019 though, the Brahmins for the first time are expected to vote en masse for the YSRCP.
The reason is not tough to guess either. While YS Jagan did make efforts to reach out to the community, he gave three of them tickets for the Assembly elections: Dronamraju Srinivas (Vizag South), Kona Raghupathi (Bapatla) and Malladi Vishnu (Vijayawada Central). These MLAs were also loyalists of YSR.
On the other hand, true to style, not a single ticket was given to the Brahmin community by the TDP.
The result is that irrespective of whether the YSRCP comes to power or not, the entire Brahmin votes in Andhra Pradesh will definitely go to the son of YS Rajasekhar Reddy.