Right from the beginning, YSR Congress party president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy has been trying to create an impression that his predecessor and TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu had chosen Amaravati as the state capital only to benefit Kamma community.
His party colleagues and ministers have also been describing it as Kammaravati, Bhramaravati and many such names and they openly said the capital was not meant for a particular community but for all sections of people.
Though Amaravati farmers have produced evidences in the court saying 80 percent of them were from BC and SC communities, the YSRC leaders have been able to create a brand for Amaravati that it is the stronghold of Kammas.
While it has terribly upset the Kammma community in Andhra, even those from Telagana are now reacting strongly to this Kamma brand on Amaravati.
The Kamma community leaders who met at Nizamabad on Thursday expressed serious reservations about the Jagan government maligning their community.
Former Union minister and Congress leader Renuka Chowdary, who hails from Khammam, took strong exception to the Jagan government for attributing Amaravati to the selfish interests of Kamma community and giving Kamma brand to the Andhra capital.
She alleged that the Jagan government was trying to suppress the Kamma community in AP by hitting its financial and political backbone with Amaravati as the centre of this conspiracy.
Taking exception to YSRC leaders ridiculing Amaravati as the capital of Kammas, Renuka challenged Jagan to rename Amaravati as Kammaravati, if he had guts.
“Let him see what will happen if he names the capital as Kammaravati,” she said.
The former MP warned Jagan against underestimating the Kamma community. “Don’t treat our soft and good nature as our weakness. We can show our power when it matters,” she said, adding that the state requires welfare of communities and cases, if the state has to witness all round development.
