Former minister and Kapu strongman Mudragada Padmanabham seems to have realised that there were no takers in Andhra Pradesh for his demand for reservations to Kapu community under Backward Classes quota.
With the previous Telugu Desam Party government headed by former chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu and present YSR Congress party government headed by Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy ignoring his demand, Mudragada is now forced to knock the doors of the Centre.
On Tuesday, Mudragada dashed off a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi requesting that the Centre approve the Kapu Reservation Bill which was passed in the Andhra Pradesh assembly during the Chandrababu Naidu regime on December 2, 2017.
He alleged that for the past fifty years, political parties in AP had garnered Kapu votes and cheated them on the reservation demand.
He reminded that the bill providing five per cent reservation to Kapus was pending at the Union Home Department.
“I request the Prime Minister to immediately clear the bill and support for the implementation of the Kapu reservation,” he said.
In the last five years, Mudragada had fought tooth and nail with the previous TDP over Kapu reservations.
He had written scores of open letters cursing Naidu for ignoring his demand and even called upon the community people to defeat the TDP.
As he wished the TDP was swept away in the recent assembly elections and YSRC came to power with strong support from Kapus. Jagan, however, cared a damn for Mudragada and virtually ruled out Kapu reservations.
What is worse, the YSRC government also withdrew five per cent quota given to the Kapus by the Naidu government under Economically Weaker Sections quota. This has angered Mudragada and he wrote a strongly-worded letter to Jagan as well for denying the legitimate rights to Kapus.
Having not received any response, Mudragada wrote to Modi to consider the demand.
