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Kapu iconic figure Ranga’s son Radhakrishna quits YSR Congress
Vangaveeti Radhakrishna’s resignation comes after Jagan’s comments in July last year that the YSRC will not press for quota for Kapus if it comes to power, citing the 50% cap on reservations imposed by the Supreme Court.
Vangaveeti Radhakrishna, the son of murdered Congress leader Vangaveeti Mohan Ranga and icon of the dominant Kapu community in the coastal Andhra region, quit Jaganmohan Reddy’s YSRC party on Sunday.
The 35-year-old Radhakrishna said he was sidelined by the Yuvajana Sramika Rytu Congress leader Jagan. He represented the Vijayawada East constituency in the undivided Andhra Pradesh assembly from the Congress during 2004-09 but lost to the Telegu Desam Party (TDP) in the election in 2014.
His father Ranga was murdered while on a hunger strike in Vijayawada city on December 26, 1988, triggering a Kamma-Kapu caste strife in the coastal region.
Radhakrishna’s resignation comes after Jagan’s comments in July last year that the YSRC will not press for quota for Kapus if it comes to power, citing the 50% cap on reservations imposed by the Supreme Court. Jagan’s rival and Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu is, however, trying his best to woo them by piloting a quota bill for the community in the state assembly. Naidu’s TDP enlisted support from Kapus in the 2014 elections with a quota promise.
Radha Ranga Mitra-Mandali, an outfit floated by admirers of Ranga and his elder brother, warned in a statement that Jagan will have to pay a heavy price in the 2019 elections for neglecting Kapus. Kapus influence the course of elections in 30-35 Assembly segments spread over Guntur, Krishna, East and West Godavari districts.
The estranged YSR Congress leader has been inactive in politics ever since the YSR Congress leadership admitted former MLA Malladi Vishnu, a one-time confidant of Ranga, into the party and made him the convener of Vijayawada East.
Vijayawada East is a constituency in Vijayawada which was held by Radhakrishna’s father, mother Ratnakumari and himself since the 1980s. With Vishnu’s admission, the chance of Radhakrishna getting the YSR Congress ticket for the assembly election to be held later this year from Vijayawada East has become slim.
A senior leader from the YSR Congress, who did not want to be named, said Radhakrishna has become a spent force in his own erstwhile bastion in the changed political context. The YSR Congress hopes to fare better in the upcoming election if it chooses a Brahmin candidate like Vishnu as a substitute for Radhakrishna.
A group of corporators in the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) loyal to Radhakrishna vowed to follow their leader even as he said he will announce his course of action in the next two days.
The last-minute efforts by YSR Congress’ senior leader and former minister Botsa Satyanarayana to retain him did not succeed.
Speculations are ripe that he may join the actor Pawan Kalyan’s Jana Sena Party.
