In Andhra Pradesh, always caste politics plays a major role in any elections. People elect the caste majority and evaluate the candidate personality and family background along with the caste.
Will the Kapu community have a significant say in choosing Andhra Pradesh’s future government? Yes, almost all of Andhra Pradesh’s major political parties respond, and the Kapu community is currently the focal point of political debate in the state.
Following fights between YSRCP-Jana Sena cadres in Vizag over the subject of three capitals, Jana Sena president Pawan Kalyan and TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu recently addressed a joint press conference, which gave the trend more fuel.
According to popular belief, Reddys control the YSRCP, Kammas control the TDP, and Kapus control Jana Sena. Going back to the Kapus family’s involvement with political parties, before creating the TDP in the early 1980s, they were members of Congress. There was a rift in the community after NT Rama Rao created the party, and some of them joined the TDP.
Later, when Kapu leader Vangaveeti Ranga was killed, the community again tilted towards the Congress. After that, there was a sea change in the approach of the community, when Mega Star Chiranjeevi founded the Praja Rajyam Party (PRP) just before the 2009 General Elections. Chiranjeevi proved the strength of the Kapus by contesting independently.
Though he could not win enough number of seats to form the government, he proved the strength of the community. Due to his political compulsions, he merged the PRP with Congress, which led to the floating of the Jana Sena by his brother Pawan Kalyan.
By the time the State got bifurcated, the Jana Sena formed an alliance with the TDP and in 2014 General Elections, Pawan Kalyan gave unconditional support to the party, which paved the way to form the government by TDP supremo N. Chandrababu Naidu.
As the political terms were disturbed, both Jana Sena and TDP contested separately in the 2019 General Elections and the Jana Sena won only one Assembly seat while the TDP settled for just 23 MLAs. At the same time, the anti-incumbency vote was consolidated by Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy-led YSRCP in the 2019 General Elections. Now, as Jagan has become a strong force in AP politics, the TDP-Jana Sena combine has sent a signal that it would contest together to fight against the ruling YSRCP in the ensuing general elections.
In this context, the political parties have started thinking that the Kapu vote would be consolidated towards the TDP-Jana Sena alliance in the 2014 General Elections. The YSRCP has started a counter strategy to retain the Kapu votes of the party and attract neutral voters within the community. As part of this effort, the YSRCP has revealed its strategy in the Rajamahendravaram Kapu leaders’ meeting held on Monday.
On the other hand, the TDP started questioning the YSRCP what it did for the Kapu community during the last three years. At the same time, the Jana Sena also started questioning the government about what benefits the community is getting under its rule.
TDP politburo member Bonda Umamaheswara Rao said that the party had provided 5 per cent reservations to the Kapu community but Jagan Mohan Reddy had cancelled it. He also observed that Ranga’s son Radha is with the TDP now and he himself admitted that his father’s murder was a clash between two families and the accused is with the YSRCP. He further observed that the YSRCP did almost nothing exclusively for the welfare of the community, challenging that he was ready to do whatever the ruling party says if it proves that it did better than TDP.
Meanwhile, YSRCP officials, including Botsa Satyanarayana, Ambati Rambabu, Gudivada Amarnath, and others, declared that they had offered assistance programmes to around 90% of the State’s Kapu population. The YSRCP government allocated about Rs 26,500 crore just for the Kapu community’s wellbeing. They added that it was 14 times better than the TDP’s expenditure on them. #KhabarLive #hydnews #hydlive
