Round Table India
Support Battula Prakash, ZPTC candidate of Bahujan Samaj Party and Jana Sena Party
Battula Prakash is contesting for the Jannaram Mandal Zilla Parishad Territorial Constituency (ZPTC) in local body elections in Telangana state. He filed his nomination on 2 May 2019 on behalf of Bahujan Samaj Party and Jana Sena Party. His entiite life has been dedicated to progressive Dalit Bahujan movements and he has not earned anything for his own personal life.
Battula Prakash is from a Scheduled Caste family and started his social activism at an early age, when he was in 10th class, by becoming a member of PDSU (Progressive Democratic Students Union) while he was studying in a Social Welfare hostel in Dandepally village in united Adilabad District.
Prakash (also known as Pradeep) was State Committee Secretary of one of the factions of PDSU. After finishing junior college in 1996, he went into underground activities of a naxalite party–CPI (ML) (Praja Prathighatana). It was then led by Comrade Chalamanna alias Kanathala Hanumanthu, the only state level leader in naxalite parties from the Rajaka (Chakali, or washerman caste in Telangana) community.
In 1998, police killed Comrade Chalamanna in a fake encounter and Prakash, the then member of state committee had taken on the role of the Secretary of the party, and actively worked in Khammam and Warangal districts.
Living up to his communist ideals, he married an Adivasi woman–Jaya (Vijaya Kantha). She was also a underground activist in the party. Prakash and Jaya both worked closely with K. G Sathyamurthy (Sivasagar) one of the founders of the CPI-ML (Peoples War–which later became the Maoist party). They were the couple who brought K.G Sathyamurthy to underground activism in the Khammam-Warangal forest in 2000 and 2001. Prakash also worked with Ramu (Kunja Kommalu) for Adivasi Liberation Tigers.
Prakash and Jaya came out of underground activism in 2002 and associated themselves with Dalit Bahujan movements. After coming out of the Naxalite party, they continued challenging injustice and discriminations at their own level. For their human rights activism and for fighting for land rights of Dalits, they were charged with criminal cases. They were acquitted in majority of the cases acquitted, some of the cases maybe still pending.
In this election campaign, Prakash and Jaya, apart from asking for votes, will also be taking the ideology of Bahujan ancestors to the doorsteps of the people pf Jannaram Mandal in Mancherial District, along with their teams, irrespective of the results of the elections.
They are both former naxalite activists who spent part of their lives in underground activism and are now engaged in Dalit Bahujan activism in their own humble ways. They have not earned anything for their own family; they still depend on daily wages to support their family. They are blessed with two kids who are studying in the local government school.
Prakash later embraced Buddhism, and associated with Samata Sainik Dal, and worked with the other Dalit Bahujan activists in the Telugu states.
Support the candidature of Battula Prakash by voting for him, and also support him whatever other means, including financially. Any amount, however small, will be a great help in this times.
Those who are able to send money may please deposit it in the account of Prakash’s wife. Prakash does not own even a bank account. Here are the bank account details:
Name: B. Vijaya Kantha
Account No. 62303054699
State Bank of India – Jannaram Branch
IFSC Code: SBIN0020908
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