“MEERA emutlu? What is your caste?” It’s a routine question in Andhra Pradesh that is just as casually answered. Caste colours everything here, but unlike what one has come to expect in UP or Bihar, politics has been able to reconcile several caste groups. Even the Dalit ‘awakening’ the state witnessed after 1985, when Karam Cheru (or the killing of eight Dalits) occurred, did not splinter votes minutely between various parties, and broader political coalitions proved durable.

But analysts say these elections will demonstrate if all that is about to change.

The past elections since the formation of the state, at least until the constitution of the Telugu Desam by NTR two-and-a-half decades ago, had seen the state’s rainbow caste coalition under the grand umbrella of the Congress. The fact that it was dominated briefly by Brahmins, and then by Reddys was accepted by several caste groups, until NTR blazed his way into the grand scheme. And while he broke into Congress votes on ‘Telugu pride’, he eventually provided a platform for another landed and prosperous caste group, the Kammas, rivals of Reddys in several ways. But the TDP, too, was a broad coalition as the backward castes here aligned themselves with the party.

However, while Dalits, other forward castes and minorities have stayed with the Congress, there is restlessness amongst the Kapus, a strong, landed but disaggregated caste group.

The Kapus — who call themselves the OCs here and are equivalent to the Kurmis or Bhumihars of north India— are generally well off and dominant in regions like the Godavari delta, but poor and backward in Rayalaseema and Telangana.

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