Revolutionary singer Gaddar to contest Munugode bye-poll from KA Paul’s PSP

Gaddar said he would start campaigning among voters from October 6, for the bye-election scheduled to be held on November 3.
Revolutionary singer Gaddar with KA Paul
Revolutionary singer Gaddar with KA Paul
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Former Maoist ideologue and revolutionary balladeer Gaddar is set to contest the bye-election to the Munugode Assembly seat as the candidate of KA Paul’s Praja Shanti Party (PSP). Paul announced this after Gaddar called on him and joined the PSP on Wednesday, October 5. Gaddar said that he would be contesting the bye-election to save the Constitution. He said he decided to join hands with Paul as he was working for global peace.

Gaddar said he would start campaigning among voters from Thursday. The bye-election is scheduled to be held on November 3. The last date for filing nominations is October 14. The seat fell vacant with the resignation of Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy, who also quit Congress and joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The constituency is likely to witness a triangular contest among the TRS, the BJP, and Congress. Gaddar's entry is likely to spice up the contest.

Gaddar, who severed his ties with the Maoists in 2017, enrolled himself as a voter the same year and for the first time in his life, cast his vote in 2018. His decision to join Paul's party came as a surprise for many as it was speculated that he would join the Congress ahead of the next year's Assembly elections. Last month, Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Bhatti Vikramarka had requested him to join the party and play an active role in politics. 

The CLP leader had also requested Gaddar to join Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Yatra. The revolutionary poet assured him that he would join the yatra once it entered Telangana. Gaddar's son GV Surya Kiran had joined Congress in 2018. Gaddar too campaigned for Congress in a few constituencies but he did not contest the elections. 

Gummadi Vittal Rao, popularly known as Gaddar, was a revolutionary singer and a Maoist sympathiser, right from his days at the Osmania University Engineering College during the Telangana agitation that began in 1969. He went underground in the 1980s and founded Jana Natya Mandali, a travelling theatre group. Known for his soulful, melodious folk songs with simple lyrics, Gaddar attracted people, especially youth, towards Maoist ideology. The group later became the cultural wing of the CPI-ML People's War, which merged with the Maoist Communist Centre in 2004 to form the CPI-Maoist.

Gaddar had escaped an assassination bid in 1997. Unidentified men had shot him at his residence on the outskirts of Hyderabad. He had blamed the police and then Telugu Desam Party (TDP) for the assassination attempt. In the first-ever direct talks between then Andhra Pradesh government and the People's War in 2004, Gaddar along with revolutionary writers and poets Varavara Rao and Kalyan Rao had acted as emissaries for the Maoists.

During his stint with the Maoist party, Gaddar strongly campaigned against electoral politics and called for a boycott of elections. In 2017, he gave up Maoism and declared himself an Ambedkarite.

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