All these days, Bharatiya Janata Party in Andhra Pradesh had been of the strong hope that it would regain its lost footing in the state by allying with the Jana Sena Party headed by power star Pawan Kalyan.
The BJP had been banking on the Kapu vote bank which, the party believed, would be solidly behind Pawan Kalyan, as the Kapus are not quite happy with the Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy government.
But with Pawan Kalyan appears to be inclining towards the Telugu Desam Party led by former chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu, the BJP has realised that there is no possibility of it making any electoral gains even in the next elections.
So, it is said be trying to woo the Kapu community and gain the community support at least to retain its political identity in the state.
The BJP extended support to the Kapu reservations under Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) quota, saying it is for the state government to decide on it.
The party leaders in Andhra Pradesh, particularly state BJP president Somu Veerraju and Rajya Sabha member G V L Narasimha Rao began talking vociferously in support of the Kapus in the recent past.
GVL has even started holding meeting with Kapu community leaders and seeking their support for the BJP. At the same time, he has been attacking the YSRC and even TDP for neglecting the Kapus all these days.
On Sunday, too, GVL spoke to media, saying YSRC and TDP had cheated the Kapus.
“No other community in the country was meted out with gross injustice like the Kapus. All these days, the two parties were blaming the Centre for not granting reservations to Kapus. What have they done for the community?” he asked.
However, a section of Kapu leaders are arguing that the latest love of the BJP towards Kapus was nothing but an attempt to divide the Kapu vote bank so that it would prevent Pawan Kalyan from coming to power and bring the YSRC back to power.
“GVL is only trying to create a rift among Kapus. He is not even taking strong Kapu leaders like Mudgrada Padmanabham or Ch Harirama Jogaiah into confidence,” a Kapu leader said and wondered whether GVL had ever participated in the Kapu agitation.
Interestingly, GVL’s own colleague in the party and former minister Kanna Laxminarayana also found fault with the former, saying he was only targeting the vote bank of Pawan Kalyan.
“GVL has done nothing for the Kapus and I wonder why he is talking about the community now, if not for hitting the prospects of Pawan Kalyan,” he said.
He reminded that since 1989, only those parties which had the support of Kapus had come to power. It is unfortunate that the Kapus were being treated only as a vote bank, he regretted.
